We are sending a short special bulletin to give a few important updates:
1) As you may have heard from school leaders yesterday, the district is preparing to reopen 28 schools in addition to the 4 already open to resume in-person services for a subset of the highest-needs HIPP students, when and if rates and metrics allow for it. We will be meeting with Building Reps from all 32 schools this evening to share more of what we know. The list of schools is not yet public, but your reps and schools leaders will be in touch soon if your school has been identified. The district has identified the schools with the highest numbers of PL3+, complex and SLIFE students.
2) Earlier this week, we met with leaders from the Boston Public Health Commission and Chief of Health and Human Services Marty Martinez to better understand the new metrics and decisions impacting reopening. We will share what we learned at our next membership meeting, and have invited them to attend our membership meeting as well.
3) Please register in advance for our December membership meeting on Wednesday, December 9 at 4:30 p.m. Please remember that you must register in advance, each link is unique and cannot be shared, and that registration requests must be submitted at least one hour before the meeting begins or you will not receive a link. Links are sent after your registration and membership status are verified. When registering, it is very important that you include your exact BPS ID# in order to expedite approvals. If you are retired or don’t have an ID# for another reason, please enter “000000.” The minutes of our previous meetings can be found behind the portal on our website.
4) We will also be holding a workshop for all BTU educators interested in learning more about how to create alternative schedules to the hopscotch hybrid model on Tuesday, December 8 at 4:30 p.m. Please register here.
We will continue to watch the rates and work with all schools to ensure safety to the best of our ability during this time. As always, please practice social distancing, stay home if you can, wear your masks and be safe.
We know this is a difficult time with much uncertainty and that there are many questions. Please rest assured that we continue to work night and day to monitor the situation, get answers to your questions, advocate for the safety of both our educators and students, and plan to the best of our ability for whatever may come.
We will continue to be in this together,
BTU Officers and Staff