Somerville Mayor Blasts State Plan To Bring Students Back ASAP

SOMERVILLE, MA — Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone is bristling at state officials' suggestion that school districts should start bringing back elementary students for full-time, in-person learning as soon as April.

"It continues to be vital to get as many students back in school as possible, preferably before the end of the year," Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeff Riley said.

Gov. Charlie Baker agreed, saying Tuesday the pandemic has been tough on everyone, but especially students.

"It's been really tough on kids, and their parents, as they struggle to be out of the classroom and detached from their teachers and their peers," Baker said.

Curtatone said the remarks took him by surprise, as any sort of effort to bring younger students back to class by April is being done "without any consultation from school districts and municipalities." He slammed the Education Department for "failing" to provide a comprehensive plan to reopen schools, forcing communities to develop their own.

The state's plan is to return more students to in-person learning this spring, assuming coronavirus cases continue to drop. As health metrics improve, Riley said remote and hybrid learning models will be taken "off the table."

Curtatone said he's willing to work with the state to start bringing students back, but the plan should depend on more than just falling case counts to be effective.

"Put a plan on the table that includes - $ for ventilation upgrades, surveillance testing, vaccinations for educators, staff, local vaccinations for vulnerable residents that doesn't force them to navigate through maze of non-user friendly technology or access a public transportation system that just had it's service scaled back, etc.," Curtatone tweeted Tuesday. "It simply requires collaboration & communication - who would of [sic] thought?"