'Map Is Not A Plan,' Somerville Mayor Says Of School Reopening

SOMERVILLE, MA — Despite the rate of positive coronavirus cases in Somerville trending in the right direction, the city is not ready to reopen its schools, according to Mayor Joseph Curtatone. The mayor penned a column in Commonwealth Magazine this week calling for more testing and contact tracing, better ventilation systems in school buildings and reorganized classrooms – not the color-coded map released by the state this week to indicate the COVID-19 risk in each community.

"I appreciate the bind in which Gov. Charlie Baker finds himself," Curtatone wrote. "Much of what we need to develop a sustainable reopening plan relies upon federal funding and support, and that's a black hole from which no help is likely to emerge. However, a map is not a plan."

At a press conference Thursday, Baker said that three-quarters of the school districts in Massachusetts plan to reopen in some capacity, either full-time or through a hybrid model. Baker has touted the state's health and safety guidelines for reopening schools and has encouraged districts to move toward in-person learning models.

Somerville was labeled a "green" community this week, meaning it is averaging fewer than four cases per 100,000 people daily. The percentage of positive test results among residents over the past 14 days fell to 0.94, along with the number of new cases, which dropped to 40.

"Municipal officials already are well aware of our local numbers," Curtatone wrote. "Yet it means very little that our community ranks as low risk of transmission when we have two extremely high risk communities, Everett and Chelsea, on our border and a school workforce that resides throughout the region. What happens in Everett and Chelsea happens in Somerville. Coronavirus doesn’t recognize city lines."

Somerville was among the first districts to announce its plan for the upcoming school year, opting to go fully remote. District officials said last month they would not even consider an in-person learning model, and the city as a whole has been more conservative about lifting coronavirus restrictions.

The city has not yet started Phase 3 of reopening, which began in July across the rest of the state.

Read Mayor Curtatone's full column here.