Governor Baker's press conference with Commissioner Riley re: schools

"when does the normal get here?"
still in the surge
health care system keeping up, thanks to a ton of planning
still very much in the grips of the pandemic here in Massachusetts
know that there is no cure, no vaccine, "insidious and invisible virus"
"I think we all want to move on from this"
"doing it wrong could create more hardship in the long run"
only go out if you need to and cover out when you do
"We are all in this together, Massachusetts"

"with respect to schools...will remain closed through the end of the school year"
"remote learning will continue in all school districts"
no authoritative guidance on how to operate schools safely or get to and from school safely
allow districts to plan
"has been a terrible loss" in being outside
help students to keep learning at home
additional steps to prepare for this
DESE to prepare summer learning particularly those behind grade level
remote learning commission, advisory commission to create more resources for schools

puts tremendous strain on families
much at end of year "that won't happen" or will happen differently
but there will be brighter days ahead

likewise childcare to stay closed through end of June

Commissioner Riley:
thank teachers, parents, students making remote learning work
know it isn't easy
understand challenges and recognize that we can keep doing better
makes it extremely important for children to continue learning through the school year
minimize learning loss as much as possible
"long way to go" in improving this
additional guidance on remote learning coming later this week
have considered this in four stages:

• closure and feeding kids
• remote learning when we didn't know how long
• remote learning for rest of year
• reopening schools; this announcement gives us more time to work on stage 4

Baker: big issue associated with this: there were a lot of mixed feelings
a lot of folks said that if there were a way to go back safely, they would have done it
"to have a chance to eyeball them a little bit and help them and then figure out how to get through to the fall"
there just isn't enough guidance...to do it safely
how do you configure a school classroom? buses "think of all the kids who pile all over each other to get on a bus"? kids and adults, health of adults
"just really became clear that there wasn't a way to make this work"
plus there is some momentum on remote learning at this point in time
Riley: heard from teachers, administrators, superintendents, that if there were any way to get back, they'd want to do
"but the data just didn't support it"
tried to listen to everyone "parents teachers school committees"
have asked districts to track students who have fallen off the grid; track kids they are most worried about going forward
not everyone has online access?
"remote learning is not online learning" have seen different ways to reach kids
"maximize all of our learning for our kids"
temperature checking students, keeping desks apart
work with everyone, including health care professional
recommend credit/no credit; did recognize that some might want to go forward with grading at high school
Sharing of best practices from both online and not online perspectives
more guidance for mental health supports
discussions about essential standards that our students need to learn to go onto the next grade

A more animated Baker: "I'll be damned if the way this works is we go through this thing, we flatten the curve, we do all the things we're supposed to do, and then we go up again in the fall because we don't handle the re-entry... in a way that keeps people safe." #mapoli

— Chris Lisinski (@ChrisLisinski) April 21, 2020