State demand to bring all elementary students back in school takes Grafton by surprise

The phones began ringing in Superintendent of Schools Jay Cummings’ office Tuesday morning shortly after Education Commissioner Jeffery Riley made a remarkable statement: all elementary school students in the state will return to the classroom by April.

It was a surprise for parents. It was a surprise for teachers. And it was a surprise for Cummings, who only a couple of weeks ago returned kindergarteners and first graders to North and South Grafton elementary schools for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools last March.

“This was completely new news for us, so we’ve been scrambling like everyone else,” Cummings told the School Committee Tuesday night.

Riley will be speaking to superintendents around the state on a call Wednesday morning, which Cummings hopes will straighten out the timeline on the proposal.

But Grafton, with smaller class sizes and a decent amount of space, is in better shape than urban districts when it comes to bringing students back to school full time.

“So many urban districts aren’t even back to hybrid,” Cummings said.

With K-1 students now back in place, the school department has already been examining what it needs to bring grades 2-5 back to school full time at Millbury Street and North Street elementary schools, Cummings said.

Grafton schools have seen minimal Covid cases in the past few weeks and no cases have been linked to in-school transmission in the 2020-2021 school year.

Students in the Remote Learning Academy would still be able to finish out the school year online.

As for high school and middle school students, Cummings expressed doubts that the state would mandate their return before the end of the school year.

Like Grafton Common? Help support local journalism with a donation.