Framingham School Committee Chair: ‘This is the Biggest Puzzle of Our Lifetime’

The following is from School Committee Chair Adam Freudberg, who was elected to the School Committee for District 4.

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FRAMINGHAM – Today, I am pleased to appoint District 6 School Committee Member Geoff Epstein to join the Framingham School Committee Unit A, S, and T Subcommittee.

Geoff Epstein will join District 1 School Committee Member and Sudbury Educator Beverly Hugo, District 8 School Committee Member and Natick Educator Jessica Barnhill, and myself, as we continue to work together with Framingham Public School (FPS) staff and educators on back-to-school related topics. 

The initial FPS Back-to-School-Plan is being sent by FPS to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to meet their required deadline of August 10th.

Yesterday’s vote was on the submission of the overall district plan, not on any specific aspect of it. It is a framework which continues to be a work in progress during the evolving situation, and will continue to be part of every School Committee meeting. 

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There are many ongoing discussions with educators through a formal process about a variety of topics including but not limited to: how to best deliver remote learning to students; a fair telecommuting policy; and how to use the ten new days at the start of September for community engagement; technology distribution; and professional development. All of these efforts are being considered with all community stakeholders in mind, including the students we are all so committed to supporting during these extremely stressful times.

This is the biggest puzzle of our lifetime. We are all in this together for the long haul. At this moment in time, uncertainty and tensions are high, and that is natural, and expected. We will continue to work on this all with the end goals in mind to support our kids and also bring people back together in person, when and if it is deemed safe as determined by public health metrics. 

FPS and the School Committee have been meeting with the Framingham Teachers Association on the Back-to-School plan in recent weeks.

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After two sessions earlier this week, the next one is scheduled for Friday morning.

FPS and the FTA are working together on many additional date options to continue the dialogue.

More updates will be forthcoming whenever possible.