On October 1, some high schools may be stuffed while others are nearly empty as high-needs students start coming back
Is that equitable? SpEdPAC parents and BTU educators say no
By Alain Jehlen
Come October 1, you should be able to guess which high school you’re in while blindfolded. Some will be silent, or almost. Others will be full of student noise.
That’s the day high-needs students are due to start coming back to their school buildings, a day that will demonstrate the stark differences among BPS schools.
“Fenway has approximately 20 percent of students qualifying for in-person on October 1,” Fenway High School teacher Kate Fussner told the School Committee at their September 16 meeting. “At Boston International, that number is 67 percent.”
“What about Boston Latin School? Fewer than 10. Not 10 percent — 10 students, in a building that normally houses 2400 students.”
“How is the current plan equitable if most schools must come up with complicated social distancing plans to keep our most vulnerable population safe while this school remains entirely unused?”
Lyndon School teacher Tim Maher asked, “How can we honestly say this is equitable and anti-racist when schools that are 10 times whiter are the same schools that will be 100 times less crowded? Aren’t we just replaying the atrocities from the spring when Black and Brown communities faced higher exposure and suffered greater losses from COVID? …”
“The solution doesn’t seem complicated,” he said. “Families have been demanding for months: ‘Find safe, uncrowded spaces for our highest needs students.’ Luxurious office buildings throughout the city, including the Bolling Building, will sit empty or underutilized while our highest priority students get one window and a fan in an ice-cold classroom.”
The BPS reopening page lists the groups of students eligible to come back to school buildings starting October 1. They are mostly students who are just starting to learn English, students with severe disabilities, and those who are homeless.
Both the Special Education Parents Advisory Council and the Boston Teachers Union have called for students who have the greatest need for in-person learning to be sent to the safest schools, regardless of whether they are now assigned there.
At Fenway High School, teacher Adriana Costache doesn’t like the inequity of having some buildings full while other good buildings are underutilized, and she doesn’t think that teaching students in the classroom and at home, both at the same time, will work well. But she says she has a bigger concern about the hybrid plan. “My number one concern is teaching English learners with a mask on, both in person and virtually,” she said.
The plan will require her to talk through a mask four days a week — every day except Wednesday, when all students and the teacher will be remote. Having their teacher speak through a mask, Costache says, will be a serious barrier for students who are struggling to understand a new language.
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