What’s the cost of COVID-19 to the schools?

Superintendent of Schools Jay Cummings isn’t getting a lot of sleep lately. His mind is too busy working through scenarios.

What will happen if the $4 million Proposition 2 1/2 override, meant to maintain the schools, hire new fire department leaders and boost the town budget, doesn’t pass in next Tuesday’s town election?

What will happen if the state gives the go-ahead for schools to open in the fall but directives increase costs even more? What if schools need to shut down again due to COVID-19? Will the school system’s most medically fragile students need expensive outplacement to protect them from the pandemic?

“We’re expecting this week, possibly Thursday, that the state is going to be putting out directives,” Cummings said during a joint meeting of the Select Board and School Committee. 

The Select Board had submitted questions to Cummings in advance (see document above) and pressed for more details about teacher contracts, the costs of COVID-19 due to social distancing needs on bus runs and in classrooms, and when staff needs to be notified about their jobs.

“If we don’t get the override, we have to let people go, obviously,” Cummings said. The contract with teachers also provides some leeway due to unforeseen circumstances — like a pandemic and the state possibly not having a set budget until after the start of Fiscal Year 2021 on July 1.

Of particular concern is the need for more nurses should students return to school in the fall. In addition to the retirement of Grafton High School’s Ceil Thurber, additional nurses may be required by the state due to COVID-19. Even in normal times, Cummings said, finding nurses is an issue.

“We don’t have extra anything, and we definitely don’t have extra nursing,” Cummings said,

School Committee Chairperson Laura Often said the committee last week passed a resolution against unfunded state mandates due to the coronavirus. The resolution was sent to the town’s legislators, state Rep. David Muradian and state Sen. Michael Moore.

Should the schools be required to return to remote learning in the fall, “it wouldn’t look like what we had in the first iteration,” Cummings said. “It will have to be more robust.”

Later in the meeting after the School Committee was dismissed, the Select Board discussed a proposed budget change from the Finance Committee which essentially asked that the town hire a full-time fire chief and two deputy chiefs and don’t give several planned pay increases to Municipal Center staff.

Select Board Chairperson Jennifer Thomas dismissed the committee’s suggestions.

“Finance Committee is an advisory committee,” she said.

Town Administrator Tim McInerney said the fire positions — at least the chief — could be added during October Town Meeting.

“And what happens if it doesn’t pass in October?” asked Select Board member Peter Carlson, the board’s representative on the Fire Study Committee. “What happens then?”

“That’s Town Meeting’s prerogative,” McInerney responded.

While Carlson stressed that the fire positions — which would be the first full-time jobs in the history of the on-call fire department — need to be filled earlier, McInerney compared it to purchasing new equipment. Since large equipment are purchased just one at a time to allow firefighters to be trained on them, the same treatment should be given for the new posts.

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