AMHERST — Officials representing the Amherst and Amherst-Pelham regional schools are again pressing the teachers union to reopen a discussion on the health metrics that have forced a two-week closure of public school buildings for any in-person instruction.
While the representative council for the Amherst Pelham Education Association last week voted down a request to renegotiate the memorandum of agreement, School Committee Chairwoman Allison McDonald sent a new plea Monday morning focused specifically on assisting intensive-needs students.
“We are particularly concerned that our high-needs students, who lack full access to distance learning, do not have the opportunity for in-person learning, which will undoubtedly add to the educational debt in our district,” McDonald wrote.
The memorandum of agreement includes health metrics that can prompt the closing of school buildings when there is a weighted case rate of 28 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents on a seven-day rolling average. When that was exceeded, the Joint Labor Management Safety Committee met and determined that remote instruction should be in place for at least two weeks beginning Oct. 26.
The formula, which factors in cases in Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden counties, currently stands at 55.8, according to the union’s calculation.
In her latest letter, McDonald also cited the Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury caseload.
“We are also concerned that three of the four communities within our districts have each had 6 or fewer total cases of COVID during the entire pandemic, and yet, their students are being denied in-person education.”
McDonald said Monday that no students are in any of the elementary or regional school buildings, and no determination will be made on whether any students can be back in classrooms until the joint committee meets on Friday. That committee includes three representatives from the teachers union, as well as two members of the school committees, Ben Herrington of Amherst and Stephen Sullivan of Shutesbury, as well as Amherst’s health director.
The union issued a statement Friday about its rationale for not agreeing to reopen the memorandum of agreement.
“The main priority of the APEA is to provide safe conditions for all who enter our schools and the standard for education which in turn support the needs of the children we teach and their families. The APEA remains committed to providing the service of high-quality education to our community while keeping our community safe, healthy and whole.”
The union also calls for better “resource allocation” to support educators and their students in providing education via remote instruction.
In addition, the union argues that there have been aspects of the memorandum of agreement not being followed, putting in-person students and staff at risk. Those included lack of personal protective equipment, including scrubs, masks, gloves and hand sanitizer; students not wearing masks or not wearing them properly and not following social distancing rules; and response protocol problems for symptomatic students and students with close contacts to someone with a suspected positive case or symptoms.
“We are certainly willing to continue discussion on what can be done for families who feel like they need more support. All summer many educators who worked on negotiations were hoping to work with the district to develop a system to support families by addressing individual unmet needs. The APEA wanted this to be a priority factor using existing resources and creative problem solving to develop plans, ideas, and solutions for families.”
