We hope the first day back in-person for 4th to 8th grades went smoothly and safely for all despite the particularly cold weather yesterday. Please do remember to call the energy office when there are concerns about room temperature so they know where problem schools/areas may need further attention: (617) 635-8740.
Educators are officially eligible to receive the vaccine as of Thursday. We have shared many resources on making vaccination appointments for educators, and are keeping our Vaccine Resources page updated. We were glad to see the first BPS clinic open Sunday and are grateful for the partnership with the district and city to help BPS employees find appointments.
We are pleased to announce that in response to the BTU’s grievance, BPS is now posting data about Covid cases weekly by school, as promised in the September MOU with the BTU. We reached a settlement last week in which the district finally agreed to do the right thing, several months after the BTU filed a grievance and took it to arbitration when the BPS failed to live up to the September agreement to display transparency.
Substitutes – please see information on how to update your information on Smartfind to regain access to sub assignments. Due to a security update at Smartfind, you may need to register to regain access to the system.
March is Social Work Month! The Behavioral Health Services department celebrated School Social Work Week last week. A proclamation was also given by Boston City Council. Check out this video about the work of school social workers in Boston. Thank you to all of our social workers for their important work and support of our students!
Lastly, our advocacy and response to the BESE mandate of returning to full in-person five days a week by April 5 continues. Of course, we would love to have all of our students in person as soon as possible, but at the same time cannot ignore the realistic logistics, planning and staffing changes that would need to happen to safely accomodate everyone. We met with our statewide affiliates yesterday and will share more details later today about plans regarding these efforts. As discussed at the membership meeting, we will also have our first BTU member dialogue space this afternoon at 4:30 p.m., where we anticipate the BESE mandate will be a topic of discussion.