Sisters and Brothers,
Earlier tonight I presented the Joint Stakeholder Coronavirus Task Force, which includes HEA members, parents, administrators, and medical professionals, with a letter written by our union siblings at the Consentino Middle School. This letter comes after a COVID-19 outbreak closed their building and sent all educators and students to remote learning until November 13th. While they applaud the decision to shut down, the HEA members at Consentino reject the notion that staff behavior is more responsible for the spread of the virus in their community than the condition of the building in which they work. As a result, they have demanded that all staff and students be required to have a negative test result prior to returning to work or learning in the building. You can read the entire letter here.
The response to the letter was generally positive, and both Dr. Marotta and Dr. Maddox acknowledged the concerns expressed by the staff at Consentino. All agreed that Haverhill would benefit from more testing. Unfortunately, the drive-through testing that was done at Consentino on Monday, though very successful, is logistically impossible to scale up or maintain. However, Dr. Marotta informed the group that she has been reaching out to officials in the Department of Health in an effort to get access to more rapid mobile testing. A lengthy discussion about strategy and what collective actions might be helpful followed. While there was some optimism expressed that this can be obtained without a fight, I was sure to remind the JSCRT that the HEA stands ready to take collective action in support of this effort. I’ll follow up with Dr. Marotta early next week and continue to keep you updated on the latest developments.
Unfortunately, the state did not release the latest public health data as expected this evening. We did learn that Haverhill’s average daily incidence rate as risen to somewhere in the range of 14-15 per 100,000 residents, up from 12.0 last week. Currently 19 HPS staff members are quarantined as a result of being a close contact while 10 are on leave after having contracted COVID-19. There are currently 46 students quarantined as close contacts, but none as a result of contact with a positive staff member in the schools.
Lastly, on behalf of the Executive Committee, I want to wish all members and any of their family members who are ill a speedy recovery.
In Solidarity,
Anthony
Anthony J. Parolisi
President
Haverhill Education Association