Grafton schools stay hybrid, quarantines cause teacher shortages
Gov. Charlie Baker may have called for school systems to bring students back to in-person school despite the COVID-19 pandemic but, in Grafton, the hybrid model will continue, Superintendent of Schools Jay Cummings told the School Committee Tuesday.
The state “doubled down on the plan not to close schools,” he said. “They are actually pushing in the other direction where they want kids to go back to the classroom.”
That may work for certain districts that went to an all-remote model at the start of the school year, but Grafton has been hybrid the entire time — and bringing everyone back to school is physically impossible for a variety of reasons.
Students are required to maintain a 3-6 foot distance within the classroom and social distancing is also required on school buses.
if we magically could double our space overnight, we still could not meet the obligations because of busing,” Cummings said.
But there’s more.
The most significant concern at this point is school staffing. Absences are up — in a typical year, there may be an average of 25 teachers absent in a given day across the schools. This week, there have been 50 absences, half of whom are quarantined for 14 days due to Covid exposure.
There are only six substitutes available.
“For the most part, we haven’t had one staff member quarantined,” he said. “You have a whole group of staff going out at one time. We had nine at once at one school.”
Fortunately, Grafton will participate in a trial that will bring rapid Covid-testing available for staff. Students may also use the service with parental permission.
With cold and flu season waiting in the wings on top of the pandemic, Cummings, along with other superintendents, is worried he may have to cancel school due to lack of staff this winter.
“To catch parents off-guard at the break of dawn — I will do anything we can to prevent that,” he said.
