AMHERST — Students returned to classrooms in the Amherst and Pelham schools Thursday following a delay from Oct. 1 caused mostly by a COVID-19 outbreak among off-campus University of Massachusetts students who live in Amherst.
Superintendent Michael Morris sent a letter to parents and guardians Tuesday informing them that schools would be reopening for students in preschool, kindergarten and first grade, as well as for special populations at all grade levels.
Noting that the off-campus UMass outbreak has subsided, Morris thanked the educators and staff who were ready to begin earlier in the month but had to remain in remote teaching mode for two more weeks.
“The flexibility of our staff is remarkable, and I encourage others to show their appreciation and gratitude to our outstanding educators who are doing phenomenal work in a challenging context,” Morris wrote.
A memorandum of agreement between the Amherst Pelham Education Association and the Amherst and Amherst-Pelham Regional school committees calls for remote instruction when there are 28 or more COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents on a seven-day rolling average in Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden counties. As of Tuesday, the weighted case rate per 100,000 people in the last seven days was 22.9, based on the union’s calculation, and was continuing to fall. When the start of school was delayed, that stood at 37 cases per 100,000 residents.
In Amherst, active COVID-19 cases had dropped to 49 as of Tuesday, a decline of nine cases from the weekend.
The “Phase 1” reopening of schools will see students in class from 9:50 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. daily, with preschoolers in the buildings from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. The “Phase 2” reopening will be for second and third graders, for class daily from 9:50 a.m. to 3:10 p.m., starting Nov. 2.
The “Phase 3” reopening, which includes the remaining elementary students, fourth through sixth graders — either two or five days per week from 9:50 a.m. to 3:10 p.m., depending on transportation and classroom space — and middle and high schoolers one day a week from 9 a.m. to 2:20 p.m., begins Nov. 30.
In his letter, Morris stated that the Amherst Health Department has informed him that the cluster associated with UMass did not show evidence of community spread in Amherst, Pelham, Leverett, and Shutesbury, the four communities that make up the district, and only four new cases in Amherst since Sept. 1 are attributed to nonstudents.
While Amherst has been designated red, or high risk, by the state Department of Health due to a two-week rolling average of cases, Morris said that ranking is not part of the agreement with teachers and staff for opening up school buildings, though it has affected some of the sports schedules.
