Melrose Schools Pushes For Dismissal Of Teachers' Remote Request

MELROSE, MA — The School Committee has asked a state agency to dismiss the teachers' union's motion to suspend in-person learning.

The filing, written by Assistant City Solicitor Amy Lindquist, was sent to Department of Labor Relations Director Philip Roberts last week. A decision is still pending.

At issue is the Melrose Education Association's charge that a memorandum of agreement between the two parties requires Melrose Public Schools to revert to full remote learning if certain COVID-19 metrics — specifically a positive test rate above 2 percent — are met.

The School Committee says the agreement does not necessitate the closing of classrooms, but rather gives Superindentent Julie Kukenberger discretion on whether to switch learning models.

The agreement says that if the positive test rate exceeds 2 percent, then "the Superintendent, prior to making a decision to return to a remote-only model, will, in consultation with the Melrose Department of Public Health, review other such relevant metrics" such as recent case count, relative change in case count and average daily incidence rate per 100,000.

"This section of the MOA in no way compels the Superintendent to revert the District to full remote, but actually vests the discretion for that “decision” in the Superintendent," the filing reads.

Melrose has long been past a 2 percent positivity rate — the most recent public health data has it at 3.53 percent and it peaked at closer to 6 percent while other metrics were also bleak. But the district has continued its hybrid learning model — save for one week of remote learning during a four-day testing blitz coming out of winter break — and Kukenberger has expressed a desire to bring more students back to class.

The legal spat is the latest development of an increasingly strained relationship between the two sides since the beginning of the school year. The return to class was delayed a month as the district and union hashed out agreements behind the scenes — negotiations that were at the time publicly described as in good faith. Recent negotiations have privately not been described as favorably.

The relationship between the union and the superintendent might be even worse. One union official told Patch in January that teachers did not know about Kukenberger's plan for the costly four-day testing and would not have supported the idea.

The MEA has been pushing for remote learning for months but has been met by a superintendent zeroed in on the safe return of students and staff to the classroom.

The union earlier this month said it wants remote learning until "regular, ongoing testing" is implemented in Melrose. State-funded pool testing isn't expected to begin here until Feb. 22, Kukenberger said this week.

Health officials for the Centers for Disease Control this week published a study saying schools can safely reopen if cities and towns keep community transmission of the virus under control.

Coronavirus metrics across Massachusetts, including Melrose, have been improving, but are a long way off from the lows over the summer.

Mike Carraggi can be reached at mike.carraggi@patch.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatchCarraggi. Subscribe to Melrose Patch for free local news and alerts and like us on Facebook.