We implore WPS teachers to get back into the classroom at the start of school in September. Wellesley students’ education has been waylaid since March 13th, and every delay creates a wider and wider gap in their core and fundamental learning. We have seen the concerns about returning to school put forth by our teachers through Wellesley Educators Association. While we share the goals of safety and optimal learning approaches for our students, we strongly believe this can be accomplished in a hybrid back-to-school model. Fortunately, much has been learned about safety and health protocols with Massachusetts leading the charge, and we find ourselves in a strong position to move forward with school in the classrooms beginning in September. Wellesley parents believe this is the best approach for our students and our town.

• We all recognize school will look and feel different. We all recognize educational pedagogy will have to adjust. We all recognize this is not how we want things to be. But we are a community that does not give up in the face of hardship, and we look to those same values in our educators to teach from the classroom this September.
• We expect ourselves and our educators to live the values we teach our kids – those of adaptability, flexibility, resiliency, and a growth mind-set.
• We believe a hybrid model is already a compromise from what we know is best for our students to learn and our teachers to teach - full-time, in-person schooling. Students thrive with direct interaction with their teachers and engagement with their peers. But we recognize that a hybrid model is the optimal approach for balancing the educational needs of our children and the current state of the pandemic in Massachusetts.
• We recognize things may change again in the months ahead and Wellesley parents have proven that we will do our part. Adjusting from classroom to remote learning, if that is what it comes to, puts our teachers and students in a position to learn from the shortcomings of the spring. A full remote schedule to start the year increases the gap between those who can and will supplement and those who cannot, driving inequity over an insurmountable horizon felt for years.
• We are watching private schools seek solutions to bring kids back to school this fall, and have seen private organizations step into the void offering safe summer programs and education curricula for the fall and beyond, giving Wellesley parents the opportunity to supplement or “opt-out” of our school system. We believe public schools not only build strong education foundations but also strong towns. We expect our school system to hear the community request to get our kids back in school rather than pursue an approach that alienates families and drives them away from their support of WPS.

To our educators – we believe in you. We know together we can get our kids into the classroom so they can get back to learning, to growing and to thriving. There are viable solutions the administration has proposed, other districts have defined and private organizations have piloted. This is not a blank canvas and there are options to get back to the business of educating. We know it can be done and our kids are depending on all of us to get them back into their schools in September. 

Sincerely,

Wellesley Public School Parents & Families