LEWISTON — The School Committee has directed the superintendent to appoint a task force on reopening schools.
In a 6-3 vote Monday night, the committee approved a motion by Chairwoman Megan Parks to create a task force with “equitable representation,” including teachers, parents, students and “other interested community members.”
She added, “I would request an effort is made to solicit at least one parent representative from each school and to connect to ethnic-based community organizations to ensure a diverse makeup on this task force.”
She said she had heard from community members, parents and educators who feel they do not have a voice in deciding when and how to reopen schools.
Parks stressed that the goal would be to have a plan in place once health officials deem it safe to fully reopen schools.
Students have been attending school in person two days a week and working remotely three days or have been working remotely five days a week this year because of the pandemic.
Parks said she had looked at other districts’ reopening plans and wanted to ensure that Lewiston is ready when the time comes.
“I’m not putting a timeline on this at all,” Parks said. “I think it would be a proactive approach to start getting plans in place.”
Other committee members worried that the action would lead to misperception in the community that reopening schools would be imminent.
“I think it’s really important not to give people a false sense that things are moving forward,” member Kiernan Majerus-Collins said.
He noted that state guidelines mandating social distancing among students would not allow all students to attend every day.
“I would rather rely on the administration communicating directly with health officials,” he said.
Seeing that the motion had support among committee members, Majerus-Collins attempted to amend it to require one-third of task force members to be educators appointed by the Lewiston Education Association. The amendment failed 5-4.
Vice Chairman Bruce Damon and City Council representative Alicia Rea joined Majerus-Collins in voting against the original motion.
Member Elgin Physic said he supported the motion as a step in the right direction.
“I think it would be good to give people an opportunity to just talk about things they feel they haven’t had a voice in,” he said.
The committee voted Feb. 22 to “stay the course” with hybrid instruction until the end of the school year, as recommended by Superintendent Jake Langlais.
Parks and member Ron Potvin voted against that proposal.
LEA President Allison Lytton said Monday that she supported staying the course.
She told committee members that they were elected to represent their constituents and that they hired the superintendent to make decisions.
She wondered whether a task force would be unbiased or made up only of people who are unhappy with the hybrid model.
Changes to the plan in place might further unsettle educators, Lytton said.
“Consistency is an important piece, and I can tell you with confidence that educators are not feeling settled now,” she said. “We’re all in this together, but the sea is getting rockier at every turn.”
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