As you are likely aware, during the School Committee meeting last night, the administration announced plans to increase in-person learning time to five days for all WPS students beginning in March. It is a vast improvement over the plan announced earlier this month. We, the working group of PIIPL@Weston, would like to thank you all for supporting this cause and helping to make this happen.
Two weeks ago, the WPS administration proposed to continue the current hybrid school plan with minimal additional in-person time. As a group, we felt that the voices of parents and students needed to be heard so we created this petition. Behind the scenes, we were also meeting with members of the WEA and the Board of Health and sending communications to the School Committee and administration including letters signed by 23 physicians, a psychologist and 3 epidemiologists as well as numerous scientific and news articles to demonstrate that we could (and should) safely bring students back for more in-person learning.
There were references made during last night’s meeting to a “threatening email” sent by the PIIPL@Weston on Tuesday. We have always been respectful in our communications with the School Committee members, the administration, the WEA, and the BOH. We did not intend for yesterday’s final plea to come across as “threatening” and we do not agree with that characterization. In the interest of transparency, we are including the full text of the email here:
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Good morning,
We assume you have seen the NY Times article this morning which, like many others over the past few weeks, calls for schools to open more robustly. Several neighboring towns are already doing so, or are implementing plans to do so, with five full school days (including lunch). You have now received the list of those supporting our petition and you have heard from hundreds of WPS parents and Weston residents. We strongly urge you to do your job and propose an all-in model to the WEA. It is not your role to guess what the WEA might say in response; instead, it is your role—and indeed your duty—to present a plan in the best interest of the WPS students. If our group needs to turn its focus to the WEA once you have proposed a plan, then we can. But until you propose something real to the WEA, it has no reason to react. And, again, RLA remains an option for families that are not comfortable with increased in-person learning.
It’s time to listen to science.
It’s time to listen to your constituents.
It’s time to listen to our kids—for their health and well-being.
We hope to hear you propose a five-day, full-day plan tonight.
Thank you again for your time and consideration,
Parents for Increased In-Person Learning at Weston
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We will be closing this petition down later today because we have accomplished what we set out to do.
Again, thank you for your support of the petition and for your efforts on behalf of WPS students and families. We very much look forward to our children going to back to school five days a week!
With gratitude,
Parents for Increased In-Person Learning at Weston