Task force to serve as conduit for school reopenings

HYANNIS — The Cape Cod Reopening Task Force is turning its attention to the region’s K-12 school systems as fall approaches.

“This is a tremendously anxious time for students, families, teachers and anyone who works in our schools,” said state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, who serves as public information officer for the task force. “The task force is aiming to play a constructive role where we can provide information and support as our local schools reopen in September.”

The Cape and Islands legislative delegation recently met separately with Cape school superintendents and with representatives from teachers associations from various districts and brought concerns back to the task force.

“We are trying to figure out how we can be helpful as conveners and sharing information,” Cyr said. “We are not making the rules of the road when it comes to reopening. To be clear, it is the governor and individual school districts making these decisions."

The task force will provide the school districts with uniform information on COVID-19 cases and testing data to ensure they are working with the most accurate and consistent knowledge available.

“We want to make sure they have the information they need to make the most informed decisions, similar to the due diligence and information we gather for the general public and business community,” Cyr said. “We want to help and be available for problem-solving any way we can.”

In addition, the task force will offer assistance to school districts by elevating concerns associated with building HVAC systems and mental health and social-emotional learning issues affecting the school communities to Boston officials and lawmakers.

“We need to continue to rely on health data and the best science-based information that we have to make decisions and plans that keep everyone in our schools as safe as possible,” Cyr said. “My biggest concern is making sure everybody has that information. It is clear from our conversations that there is not uniform understanding about what testing and test data is available."

Barnstable schools Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown said data and information the task force can provide is helpful, since the district assesses countywide statistics and not caseload and testing figures from the town alone.

“Our employees come from across the Cape and off-Cape, and we have school choice students from other towns,” she said.

The idea of developing a regional reopening plan for schools had been proposed at one of the meetings, but the concept did not move forward, according to Cyr.

State Rep. Randy Hunt, R-Sandwich, brought forth the issue with union representatives, asking if there was interest in developing a consistent set of rules Capewide.

“But nobody raised their hand,” Hunt said. “I took that to mean there wasn't a lot of interest for our region to reopen under a standard set of rules. I can understand that, because each district is different, but it was worth asking the question.”

The task force will offer a webinar next week for superintendents, school committee members and teachers associations to provide an overview of data it has collected, trends it is seeing in the region, testing assets and where this information can be located and accessed.

In addition, a superintendent and a representative of the teachers associations will be formally invited to serve on the task force.

Although the Cape is still weeks away from schools reopening, Cyr said the region is already ahead of the game by not planning to have students return until mid-September.

“I think that’s a very good call,” he said. “It helps the school districts to prepare and gives us two weeks of data after Labor Day to develop a more accurate picture of what’s going on. We expect to continue to have an increased population, but the sheer number of people who are here now will begin to decrease.”

Follow Geoff Spillane on Twitter: @GSpillaneCCT.