ATHOL — Athol Royalston Regional School Committee Wednesday night approved a memorandum of agreement between the school district and the Athol Teachers Association, the union that represents all district employees.
“I’m happy to say,” Superintendent Darcy Fernandes told the committee, “that we’ve been working very closely with the ATA to ensure we have a memorandum of agreement for our teachers to begin supporting our students. I believe we’re at a point where we are clearly in agreement. If approved tonight, we can begin accessing teachers tomorrow and having them provide learning for our students in the district, or what I call extension enrichment activities.”
Committee member Carla Rabinowitz said the agreement had been reviewed earlier in the day by the panel’s Policy Subcommittee.
Currently, under order by Gov. Charlie Baker, Athol Royalston Regional School District along with all public schools statewide are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Monday, April 6 is the earliest possible opening.
“This basically mirrors what every other school that we are aware of, every other district that we are aware of, in Massachusetts is doing,” she said. “I think it represents a really important step in making sure the kids’ educational services are as good as they can be during this interval.”
“I really appreciate the fact that the ATA would sit down with us and get to an agreement that both supports teachers and students,” Fernandes interjected. “I really want to make sure I mention that.”
Fernandes said the district will post information on its website with instructions on the means for families to access material for their children.
“There will be a link on our website,” she explained. “They will be able to click on that link; down will come a list of every teacher in the district. They will be able to click on the teacher’s name and find a set of materials right there. As soon as the system is up and running, I will notify the parents. We’re looking most likely at starting on Monday, with everything being posted and up.”
The superintendent said steps are being taken to assist families who may not currently have internet access.
“If you do not have access to the internet available in your home,” she said, “Spectrum (Athol’s cable provider) right now is offering 60 days of free access to it, so they need to call Spectrum. In addition, if families don’t have a computer at home, we have posted a document on our website as to where you can go and at exactly what time to pick up a Chromebook; one per household. We don’t have enough for every student in the district, but we do have enough for households. I only ask that households that do have a computer in the home use that one instead of coming by for a Chromebook.”
If worse comes to worse, Fernandes added, parents and students can obtain printed copies of assignments and materials via the buses that are delivering meals to students throughout the district. Nearly every student in Royalston will be receiving assignments in this manner since the town currently lacks both cable and wireless internet access.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com