NAHANT — The School Committee paid its bills and discussed COVID-19 protocol, staffing, and enrollment at its regular meeting after first- through sixth-grade students returned to school Tuesday.
The committee paid nearly $35,000 in bills at the meeting. Of that, about $10,000 went to the Northshore Education Consortium. The remaining $15,000 in payments covered things including elevator repairs, National Grid bills, and convention attendance fees for staff. Nahant School District Superintendent Tony Pierantozzi added in his comments to the committee that the district will pay an additional $42,000 to replace its current outdated communication system with 25 new classroom phones and six administrative phones.
The Nahant School District will welcome a new music teacher and a new special education teacher this school year and Pierantozzi said he is “thrilled” that the district is close to being fully staffed. Pierantozzi added that the high level of staffing is necessary as enrollment for primary grades, or kindergarten to third grade, has increased. He said the district has seen a dip in enrollment in upper grades that will be filled as time passes and younger students age. After several years of schooling altered by the pandemic, committee members said they are excited to once again focus on serving Nahant’s students.
“Getting back to normal,” Pierantozzi said. “That’s my new trick.”
Essentially all COVID-19 restrictions and limitations will not be in place in the district this year, according to Pierantozzi. He said students will not be required to physically distance themselves from one another or wear masks, for example. Pierantozzi added, however, that school and district staff will still take cases involving symptomatic students or staff seriously.
Pierantozzi said if a student is symptomatic, a school nurse will make the determination of whether or not to send them home depending on which symptoms they exhibit. If a child is sent home, school staff will then request that the child’s parents get them tested for COVID-19. If they test positive, the student will be required to stay home for five days. When they again test negative, the school nurse will determine whether or not they must wear a mask when returning to school. Pierantozzi added that parents are welcome to keep their child who tested positive for COVID-19 home for as long as 10 days if they wish.
“We don’t want to exclude children, but we don’t want an outbreak, and all of the sudden, we have 25 students unable to come to school,” Pierantozzi said. “Obviously, we stay in touch with the town government and the CDC…. If they change, we change.”
Pierantozzi said this academic year, the key to returning to school for a child who has tested positive will be for that child to have had no symptoms for at least 24 hours.
Johnson Elementary School Principal Kevin Andrews said the school’s default will be to hold events in person this academic year. He added, however, that School Committee meetings will likely be held both in-person and virtually.
The Nahant Education Foundation will host a Back to School Bonfire on Short Beach on Sept. 1 at 6:30 p.m. and Johnson Elementary School will host its open house on Sept. 7 from 6-8 p.m.
“It’s challenging to merge in-person and remote,” Andrews said. “So if you’re wondering, we’re going to pretend like it’s 2018 and go forward with in-person.”
Rachel Barber can be reached at [email protected].
