Parent pleads for in-person school

Middlesex superintendent reminds board decison to go to virtual instruction tied to surge in COVID-19 cases in county

by Larry Chowning

At the Middlesex County School Board (MCSB) meeting on Sept. 14, a Locust Hill parent expressed his frustration for his children being taught at home through online “virtual” learning.

At the meeting, Thomas Kennedy pleaded with school board members to consider reopening schools to in-school instruction. MCSB decided in August to open schools using at-home online “virtual” learning instruction for the first six weeks of the school year.

With COVID-19 cases on the rise in Middlesex and throughout the region, the school board in August voted to drop the hybrid plan and open schools for the first six weeks using an online virtual teaching method five days a week.

The six week period of online learning will be up in October and the school board is scheduled to re-evaluate the plan at its Oct. 12 board meeting. The school board will decide to either continue online instruction, or perhaps some type of in-school instruction.

Kennedy complained that school officials gave parents only a few weeks to prepare for home schooling “yet you had six months to prepare us,” he said.

He said due to COVID-19 his wife lost her job and now his children are spending “30 minutes” a day online with their teachers while the rest of their instruction “falls on my wife.”

Kennedy questioned the science that is being used by Centers for Disease Control…