Expanding Classroom Learning May Mean Easing Social Distancing

PEABODY, MA — The goal to get more students back into the classroom more often has been mostly a collective one throughout the North Shore since September.

Closing in on a year since the onset of the coronavirus health crisis, the challenge remains how to achieve it amid fluctuating rates of community spread, a methodical state vaccine rollout and conflicting opinions behind what constitutes a "safe" in-school experience.

While several area superintendents have referenced the desire to increase classroom time this spring, Marblehead Superintendent of Schools John Buckey and that town's School Committee took the firm step of putting together a leadership team to develop a plan for it — starting with kindergarten and first grade — over the upcoming weeks.

Buckey allowed in a letter to the community that would necessitate easing of the 6-foot social distancing protocols commonly observed throughout the pandemic.

"Some classrooms will be able to maintain close to 6 feet distancing where others might not," he said.

Buckey said consultation with the town's Board of Health determined that the 6-foot protocol is a recommendation — not a mandate — and "with (the social distancing) piece now more flexible, I felt that we should begin an earnest process to return learners to more time in classrooms."

State Department for Elementary and Secondary Education guidelines from August fall in line with that assessment: "DESE's guidance, in consultation with medical experts and state health officials, advises that schools allow for a minimum of 3 feet, and ideally 6 feet of physical distancing whenever possible. This, in combination with other safety measures, will minimize transmission."

Only it's not as simple as just deciding to rescind the standard with the 6 feet of distance being part of many agreements between districts and teachers when return-to-classroom plans were developed in August, and community spread was significantly lower than it is now. The statewide 2.96 percent seven-day average positive test rate reported on Tuesday is down from a high of 8.6 in early January, but still well above the low of 0.8 in September.

"Throughout the summer we explored several options for distancing as part of our reopening plan," Peabody Superintendent of Schools Josh Vadala told Patch. "We settled on 6 feet distancing, which followed the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidelines and the recommendation of our public health department. We have a (memorandum of understanding) with our unions that currently requires 6 feet distancing. Any changes would need to be impact bargained."

Vadala said his district's ideal remains to adhere to the guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which prioritizes in-person learning, but that before making any proposals to alter the current hybrid learning system the district would consult the Peabody Health Department as well as any updated CDC guidelines.

Those could come as soon as Wednesday with expected new CDC guidelines designed to create a road map for most students in the country to return to in-classroom learning during the first 100 days of the Biden Administration (which would be by April).

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"We heard from parents and a student who expressed what so many of us feel — the fatigue and despair associated with the seemingly unending nature of this pandemic, and the toll it's taking on us all," Buckey said in his letter to the school community on Tuesday. "As I have said many times, there is nothing I'd love more than to get our children back to school.

"It has to be done safely, though."

While Gov. Charlie Baker has repeatedly pushed for more in-classroom learning across the state, a group of 29 North Shore superintendents and teachers' union presidents sent Baker a letter late last month urging him that opening coronavirus vaccinations to all school staff as "front-line workers" would greatly help to that end.

Teachers remain in the latter half of Phase Two of the state's vaccination rollout as of Tuesday.

"Our goal is to get educators vaccinated and safely return as many students full-time, in-person learning as soon as possible," Vadala reiterated on Tuesday.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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