By Vicki Greene, Contributing Writer
Marlborough – Marlborough Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bergeron said the state Department of Early and Secondary Education (DESE) has informed him that the district has been approved to receive rapid COVID-19 testing which would be administered for symptomatic students or staff members.
In his Nov. 24 report to the School Committee, Bergeron said, “We are going through the protocols to become an approved site, and to gain the appropriate licenses to perform these tests.”
He stressed that “By no means is this meant to be a testing program for wide-scale use- this is specifically for symptomatic individuals only.”
He said he does not have a confirmed date to roll-out the testing but is hoping to hear from the state in early December about when they would be sending a “batch of tests.”
As of the Nov. 24 meeting, Bergeron said there were 13 positive cases in the district, that the number has not spiked, has hovered between 7 and 14 cases, and that “familial spread is the prevalent factor.”
In other business, School Committee Member Katherine Hennessy recently provided her colleagues with a draft letter she planned to submit to State Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley regarding concerns over a lack of discussion with districts and no definitive decision yet about offering MCAS testing remotely. At the Committee’s Nov. 24 meeting, members decided to provide input to Hennessy on the draft letter and to vote at the Dec. 8 meeting on whether to submit the letter as a school committee.
MCAS testing is scheduled to start in January and according to Bergeron, there has been “little discussion” on whether the commissioner would allow districts to offer the test to be taken remotely. Bergeron stressed that Marlborough has given other district benchmark tests to students remotely and there have not been any problems with inappropriate actions or parents taking the tests for their students, etc.
Hennessy told the Committee she felt strongly that “if a student has been remote they will (currently) have to make a choice to come in or not (to take the test) that puts the student, the district, family members in a bad position.”
Several school committee members thought it may be beneficial to send the letter representing the feelings of the full committee and plan to review Hennessy’s draft and provide suggestions. They said they plan to review an updated version of the letter and vote at the next meeting.
