CARLISLE — Despite the rising cases of coronavirus in Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker says kids can still be in school as long as their communities follow safety procedures.
Baker visited Carlisle Public Schools Thursday morning, touring the building that houses students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade before holding a press conference to tout the importance of keeping kids in school during the pandemic.
Carlisle has over 600 students back in classes while taking steps to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks. These include students and staff wearing masks in and outside the building, social distancing indoors and having hall monitors direct small groups of students between classes.
School Superintendent James O’Shea noted the “concerted effort” undertaken by staff, students, town officials and local families to make the in-person learning happen this year.
“The project isn’t over,” he added. “Everyday there’s a new challenge, but our people continue to work just like the folks across the commonwealth. All educators are doing the same: working to keep their students in-person, to keep everyone safe, healthy and educated, and to move them forward.”
Baker applauded Carlisle for adapting to state advisories about reopening schools in its own way, especially noting how all of the students he saw while touring the building were responsibly wearing face masks without being bothered by it. He credited those kids for being “a lot more mature than many of the adults” he knew. Baker saw Carlisle and other communities going forward with in-person learning as setting an example for other districts to follow suit.
“We’ve tried very hard as a state to provide people with a lot of guidance and resources, but we recognize and understand that the decision about the ‘how’ is ultimately going to get made at the local level because the people know their districts best,” Baker said. “One of the things I always talk about when dealing with change is you need people who are willing to try, and it’s very clear that here, people are willing to try.”
As of Wednesday, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health had recorded 172,471 confirmed cases of coronavirus. The State House News Service reported that plans for field hospitals are set to be announced this week in case the number of COVID cases increases more as the season goes on.
Baker said that data shows the reason for the new increase in cases is not because of kids back in school halls. In fact, the governor cited a recent article by The Washington Post stating that the majority of the new cases in the U.S. are caused by dinner parties, game nights and other “small, informal, casual gatherings with a bigger circle of friends.”
“For us to really win this fight, people have got to recognize and understand that spending a lot of time outside their core social and family circles not wearing masks or distancing or doing the things they do when they’re at school or work or anywhere else, your risk and your opportunity to spread the virus is so much higher,” he said.
Baker’s main message was for districts and their residents to continue following guidance from public health and state officials. He stated that the commonwealth is “nowhere near the uncharted territory” it faced in the spring with the first wave of cases, not only having anticipated the winter surge but improving its addressing of it.
Baker touted Massachusetts as the largest per-capita tester for COVID in the U.S., with 80,000 to 100,000 tests daily, and noted the state’s “dramatically better” methods of identifying cases now compared to earlier this year.
“The health care system is far more prepared to deal with and to manage these issues now then they were back in the spring,” Baker added. “This is a drill and a process that I think at this point we have a fair amount of experience with.”
