Teachers push back on Baker administration claim that unions oppose in-person school until there are COVID-19 vaccines for children
Union leaders say itâs âpatently false,â but Governor Charlie Baker said he stands by his administrationâs statement
By Felicia Gans Globe Staff,Updated January 27, 2021, 3:38 p.m.
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Jessica Tang, president of the Boston Teachers Union, Merrie Najimy, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and Beth Kontos, head of the AFT Massachusetts.
The presidents of two statewide teachers unions in Massachusetts and the Boston Teachers Union pushed back on a claim made this week by Governor Charlie Bakerâs administration that union leaders âoppose going back to the classroom until vaccines for children are developed.â
Cambridge educators vote no confidence in superintendent over school reopening plans
By Felicia Gans Globe Staff,Updated January 25, 2021, 5:09 p.m.
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Cambridge educators have voted no confidence in Dr. Kenneth N. Salim, the School Committee, and âdecision-making structuresâ in Cambridge Public Schools over plans for resuming and expanding in-person instruction during the pandemic.
About 83.6 percent of the Cambridge Educators Association voted Friday to approve the resolution of no confidence, which states that the district has rooted its reopening plans in âwhite supremacy culture.â
The group also included an addendum, citing examples of the alleged white supremacy culture within the school district. For example, the association wrote, district leaders have allegedly been defensive when faced with questions and have ârepeatedly deniedâ educators the opportunity for âpower-sharing.â The association also said that the distr
Teachers in Massachusetts are now in the third group for the COVID-19 vaccine in Phase 2, and their unions aren’t happy about it.
Phase 2 is set to begin on Monday, and the first in line are people 75 or older who weren’t vaccinated as part of the initial phase. Then comes people 65 or older and those who have two or more comorbidities that give them an increased risk for severe illness.
Then comes teaching staff and other workers in essential jobs – grocery store workers and those who work in restaurants and cafes, utilities, transit, and food and agriculture.
Initially, teachers and other essential workers were second in line in Phase 2 to people of all ages with two or more underlying conditions that put them at risk. Those 75 or older were moved to the beginning of Phase 2 earlier this month, and those 65 or older were moved into the second group on Monday.
‘It’s like the Hunger Games;’ Teachers unions in Massachusetts say change in COVID vaccine priority slows down return to in-person learning
Updated Jan 26, 2021;
Educators’ unions in Massachusetts say that changes to the state’s COVID-19 vaccine priority announced by Gov. Charlie Baker slow down the return to safe, in-person learning and make members, students and families “feel like pawns in a chess game.”
Baker on Monday announced that seniors aged 65 and older would be moved up in the state’s priority-based COVID vaccine rollout. Phase 2 of the rollout begins on Feb. 1, with people 75 and older slated to be the first priority group. Residents older than 65, along with residents of all ages with two or more comorbid health conditions, will be able to get shots after the first group.
The COVID Slide: Inequality And Pandemic Learning Loss
Emily Veloza, left, and her daughter Olivia, right, a sixth-grader in Chelsea, Mass.
Meredith Nierman
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Pandemic Learning Loss
One of the many heartbreaks of the pandemic has been the way many tired and overworked parents have to watch their children fall behind academically.
Emily Veloza has witnessed the so-called COVID slide firsthand. Her daughter Olivia was a middle-of-the-road student who used to be generally enthusiastic about school. Since the pandemic, her grades and her motivation have slipped. She hates it, Veloza said. She absolutely hates school.
The teacher moves faster than she did in regular classes, Veloza said, and her daughter spends more time working independently or in small groups of students. Veloza recently learned that her daughter had not turned in a single science assignment this fall, even though she attends a science academy in Chelsea north of Boston. It was frustrating.