Boston Schools Not Likely To Fully Reopen Before Christmas, Walsh Says
BOSTON (CBS) -- Mayor Marty Walsh said Tuesday that he would love to be able to fully reopen Boston Public Schools right now. But he said that's unlikely to happen until after the holiday break.
"I'm hopeful that in the course of the next couple weeks I'll be able to stand here with a plan on how we're going to reopen our schools in Boston," Walsh said at a news conference. "I'm not anticipating our schools reopening fully before Christmas."
Boston Public Schools suspended in-person learning for all students in late October as coronavirus cases started to surge again. A few schools have reopened for high needs students in special education.
Walsh said every Boston neighborhood saw a drop in positivity rate over the last week, and numbers were going "in the right direction" before Thanksgiving.
"I think that as we continue to move forward, if we get these numbers down, and we set benchmarks, and we're hitting those... we will begin the process of, hopefully, reopening schools right after the new year," Walsh said.
Walsh said he hears the protests from parents who want schools open now, but said with Boston seeing another 400 new cases on Monday, it's not the right time.
"I would love to have our kids in schools right now. I mean, the loss of education, by not being in person, we don't know what the impacts will be right now. We probably won't know for a year or so. I think they're going to be pretty detrimental in some ways," he said.