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Remote learning to continue in Marlborough through Jan. 11

By Vicki Greene Contributing Writer

MARLBOROUGH —The School Committee voted Nov. 10 to keep students grades 3-12 learning remotely with a projected return date on Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. Students in Pre-K through Grade 2, English Language Learners and Special Education students will continue in-person learning.

Superintendent Michael Bergeron can call a special school committee meeting prior to Jan. 11 if he feels it’s necessary.

Mayor Arthur Vigeant, who serves as School Committee Chair, along with several committee members and Bergeron said they’ve all received emails from parents “that were 5050” on how to proceed through the holidays.

“For consistency of learning and working parents I believe staying remote right now through the holidays will then give an extra week to see if symptoms or cases come up,” Vigeant said. “I am fully intending to bring students back to school on the 11th and if something changes we’ll schedule an emergency meeting.”

Teacher Eileen Barry spoke on behalf of the Marlborough Educators Association and said “ I am fully intending to bring students back to school on the 11th and if something changes we’ll schedule an mittee that the state’s change in metrics and color coding communities by positive cases brought the number of “red” communities down from 121 to 19. He said under the new “I listened to what the governor said and unfortunately I don’t think the state has been very helpful,” Committee Member Heidi Matthews said. “They’re telling us one thing emergency meeting. threshold of a five percent and at the same time saying it’s positivity rate, Marlborough your (local) decision.” Mayor Arthur Vigeant would have never been high When asked about remote School Committee Chair risk as it has been between one learning attendance Bergeron and three percent under the said it has been over 90 percent Gov. Charlie Baker’s news conference announcing new metrics and a new COVID-19 map last week asking all non “red” or “high risk” communities go back to in-person learning “caused confusion (because) we as educators think students learn best in the classroom but we’re in our fourth week workwanting to avoid a “ping pong” effect. The district started the year off in a hybrid model but due to positive case counts and quarantining staff and students, the School Committee voted at the end of October to move Grades 3-12 to remote. Bergeron told the Comnew model. Marlborough is a “solid yellow” according to Bergeron and he doesn’t see that changing so the city is no longer considered high risk. These new state guidelines have prompted every community to reassess their school and business policies. for elementary and middle school students and over 80 percent for high school. There are 59 cases in the City as of Nov. 10 according to Vigeant who said he believes that number is “stagnant up or down 10 or 15 either way” for the foreseeable future. ing remotely and we’ve built up a rhythm and routines.”

Barry advocated for con- Redistricting process moves forward for elementary schools sistency and keeping remote learning with a reassessment in January. Allison Lucas, Marlborough High School senior and Student School Committee Representative agreed. “From a student standpoint we should stay remote,” she said. “I feel so much better knowing every day is the same (schedule) and going back and forth is mentally draining. “ There was much concern among the Committee about met, ensuring availability of dedicated instructional space, account for future development and growth, emphasize the “neighborhood school” approach, consider student demographics and minimize change. Collins shared that the next steps will be for AppGeo to build several scenarios, schedule meeting for evaluations, Redistricting | from page 20 and incorporate projection data into those scenarios. “We have scheduled Dec. 1 for our first virtual community forum so that would be the first time that we present some preliminary options for the entire community to look at and to explain some of the basics of the process to the community,” he said. Their goal is to bring a formal recommendation to be voted on by the School Committee as early as their Feb. 10 meeting. “This is so exciting…This is a really complicated process and I think you’ve laid out a very reasonable process and I hope we can get the community to engage early and frequently because we know they have strong feelings,” commented committee member Lynsey Heffernan.

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