As Harvard schools prepare to reopen next week, last-minute decisions by families who want their elementary school children to take classes remotely have led to a need for more teachers. On Monday the School Committee approved Superintendent Linda Dwight’s request to hire a teacher for another remote section at fourth grade and possibly also another teacher for the primary grades. The district has already hired an additional fifth grade teacher and transferred a teacher from middle school to third grade.
Dwight explained that the elementary school is trying to limit each remote class to no more than 24 students. With more than that, she said, the teacher can’t give adequate attention to each student, even with help from a reading or math tutor. Elementary classes spend much of their learning time working in small groups, and for remote learners that work takes place in online “breakout rooms.” The teacher and the tutor take turns working with each group, checking to see what help the children need.
When parents decide to keep their children home as remote learners, the in-person classes at school become smaller, but not small enough to reduce the number of sections there. The limiting factor for in-person classes, Dwight said, is the size of the classrooms. To ensure safe social distancing, 16 students is the maximum number each room can accommodate.
School Committee member Abby Besse asked where the money will come from to hire the additional staff. Dwight said the town is planning to give back half the amount it had required the district to cut from its budget this year. In addition, the schools have not yet taken this year’s planned offset from the Devens fund. (The Devens fund is the money MassDevelopment pays Harvard schools for educating students who live in Devens.) Dwight also said some of the new staff members are asking less than the salaries they might usually expect to command. “We’re getting good people,” she said.
Committee member Suzie Allen asked whether the schools could at some point refuse to allow families to shift from in-person to remote classes. But Dwight replied the state requires districts to allow children to switch to remote learning at any time. However, they can switch back to in-person classes only at specific dates the district has set.
With teachers back in the school buildings to get ready for next week’s classes, Dwight acknowledged that many felt “some trepidation” about returning. But she said 87% of the teachers had voted in favor of the shared agreement between the administration and the Harvard Teachers Association.
“We know how much we are asking of our teachers,” Dwight said. “I couldn’t be happier with the collaborative relationship we have here with the teachers.”
