Responding to the Braintree School Committee’s unilateral decision to hastily return high-school students to full in-person learning next week and other students shortly thereafter, members of the Braintree Educators Association overwhelmingly voted no confidence in the committee.
“We want to do more in-person learning, but to do it effectively and safely, we need extensive planning and preparation among all of the stakeholders,” said BEA President Truong Dinh. “The committee and Mayor Kokoros are upending existing plans that educators and administrators put in place just last month. This continues a troubling pattern of committee members ignoring the expertise and perspective of dedicated career educators.”
The BEA has raised concerns with how students could be returned to schools in a manner that conforms with COVID-19 guidelines put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The decision to bring back older students first is also in conflict with the state’s guidance to initially increase in-person learning for elementary school students.
The BEA outlined its concerns in a letter to the committee following the vote of no confidence.
The BEA maintains that there are far too many unresolved issues around the academic, health and safety needs of students and educators to realistically return to more in-person learning as early as March 15, which is the date set by the School Committee for high-school students to return to fully in-person learning.
The BEA remains committed to bargaining with the School Committee over plans to safely and effectively increase in-person learning for our students.
Braintree Education Association 