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Wellesley health officials frustrated with limited vaccine role; schools to discuss COVID-19 dashboard update

January 25, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Word that the Commonwealth intends to rely mainly on regional COVID-19 vaccination centers and partnerships with commercial distributors like CVS for inoculations during Phase 2 of the state’s rollout plan has Wellesley’s Health Department and Board of Health grappling with what their role will be in all this. Phase 2 of the rollout starts Feb. 1 for the state, which as administered nearly 450,000  COVID-19 vaccine doses to date.

The Health Department successfully vaccinated first responders and town health employees earlier this month beginning on the first day it got the Moderna vaccine,  but opportunities for the town to vaccinate seniors, teachers, or others is starting to look less likely, based on discussion that took place Monday during the Board of Health’s meeting, which included Wellesley School Committee and Wellesley Public School reps.

Their meeting was held just prior to Gov. Charlie Baker sharing the state’s latest vaccination numbers and plans, which included bumping teachers down a smidge on the vaccination priority list. Board of Health Vice Chair Dr. Marcia Testa Simonson was joining the meeting straight from a call with other high-level health officials, so had the skinny on what the governor was slated to announcement during his briefing, and the health department was going to be back on a call with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health at the end of the day.

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New information on vaccines is coming fast and furious, and vaccines were the topic of the day for the health and school officials. It has been top of mind for residents as well, according to Health Director Lenny Izzo.

“We’re getting a lot of emails, we’re getting a lot of criticism and comments around the vaccine rollout, a lot of remarks that we’re essentially hoarding or not sharing the vaccine, or opening up public clinics the way we should be,” he said. “The bottom line is just don’t have the vaccine.”

At the earliest, the town will get more vaccine mid-next week, he said, and at the most, the town will be able to request 100 doses per week, which it plans to do.

“The ball is in the state’s court right now,” Board of Health Chair Shep Cohen added.

Cities and towns across the state are receiving public health trust fund money and some have already hired people to do vaccinations, though now will perhaps have those people handle testing instead, Testa Simonson said.

It’s unclear at this point how the town or state will handle vaccines for homebound residents who may have great difficulty getting to a regional vaccination center, such as Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. The town is getting plenty of calls from its senior residents who are figuring town health personnel might be swinging by with vaccines for them, even though that isn’t likely how things will work.

Testa Simonson said that one role for local public health entities could be helping people schedule their vaccines, maybe even by setting up a call center to help people navigate the system. Perhaps the Council on Aging could also play a role in this, and helping to get people to where they need to go for vaccinations, board members said.

It’s unclear whether the CVS on Rte. 9 east in Wellesley will be a COVID-19 vaccination site, but Board of Health member Linda Oliver Grape noted that it does have a nice setup there that could accommodate such activity. The site already provides COVID-19 testing.

“We’ll see what happens,” Izzo said, about the overall vaccine plan. “[The state] always seems to change course.”

Wellesley Public Schools update

Upon hearing the state’s latest vaccine distribution plans, Wellesley Public Schools Supt. Dr. David Lussier said “I’m shocked that they’re not trying to leverage local resources to get this done.” Vaccinations for staff are the highest priority for school districts everywhere, he said: “That’s really going to be a catalyst for other things we may be able to do before the end of this school year.”

Lussier expressed surprise that teachers would be bumped down (even if only slightly) on the state’s priority list in light of the governor’s push to get more kids back in physical schools. “I had hoped we could develop a partnership, a local solution that would allow our staff to be vaccinated here in the community in which they work,” he said.

The logistics of getting teachers and staff to mass vaccination sites during the school day would be challenging, and a much less nimble solution than handling things locally, Lussier said. A professional organization for superintendents to which he belongs sent a letter to the governor last week strongly encouraging him to be thinking of February vacation as a good opportunity to get teachers vaccinated. Though as Board of Health members noted, that could be tough time-wise given that there are some big groups ahead of teachers on the schedule.

Lussier posed the question of whether it might behoove the town to approach an outfit like CVS to get a vaccination plan in place for when it is the teachers’ turn.

Separately, Lussier gave an update regarding COVID-19-related efforts at the school system. He made reference to a new state program to support pool testing at schools, but that solution is more labor intensive than the one Wellesley has already been using, so not attractive to Wellesley Public Schools. Lussier is hoping that perhaps state funding might be available to WPS even though it is not using a state-approved vendor or model. WPS is shifting from private to local funding to support its viral testing program, so state relief would be more than welcome.

The school system will also be hosting a webinar on Thursday, Jan. 28 at 6:30-8pm to discuss its plans to update the Wellesley Public Reopening Measures dashboard, which health and school representatives have been working to revise in light of new knowledge about the virus and its spread. Web links will be shared soon.

Wellesley COVID-19 cases booming

Ann Marie McCauley, the town’s public health nurse supervisor, said Wellesley is getting a lot of COVID-19 cases these days. She cited 20 new ones over the weekend and 16 more Monday morning, with Babson College numbers booming upon the return of students from their winter break.

Wellesley has largely been handling contact tracing for COVID-19 cases on its own, but the higher numbers have resulted in the town sending more to the state’s Community Tracing Collaborative.

As for vaccines, the town held two clinics last week, dispensing first-round doses to first responders and school nurses.


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Filed Under: COVID-19, Education, Government, Health

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Wellesley High back to hybrid learning; schools tightening budget belts due to COVID

January 21, 2021 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley High School returned to a hybrid model of education on Tuesday, after students spent a week learning remotely due to an increase in positive COVID-19 test results. Data located on the district’s COVID dashboard reflects that in the date range of Jan. 8 – Jan. 21 there were 22 positive tests in the public school system, with the highest number during that time (10) coming from WHS. The high numbers caused a shift at the high school to full remote learning.

Wellesley High School, fall 2020

Superintendent David Lussier during the Jan. 12 School Committee meeting said the data is essential in allowing the district to take “targeted actions that might be appropriate at one school that really aren’t warranted at other schools. While we never want to see schools closed, period, the fact that we’re able to target this for one school at a particular time speaks to how much we’ve learned.”

Some parents, however, are concerned about the impact of remote learning on the quality of education that is delivered, and the impact of remote learning on students’ mental health. A letter about this was signed by hundreds of parents and sent to school and other town officials.

The upshot: a large number of parents want their kids back in school full time.

The school and health departments are reworking the public schools reopening measures dashboard, whose underlying measures need to be updated in light of new data from the town and beyond regarding COVID-19. Currently, Wellesley Public Schools are failing all three measures highlighted in the dashboard.

Our take: we’d like to be wrong on this, but in reading between the lines, it seems unlikely that there will be a return to full-time school across grade levels for the rest of the year. Though the vaccine could allow some changes.

Why students aren’t back in school full-time

In an effort to manage expectations while addressing parent concerns, Lussier said that the overarching goal has been to “bring back students within grade levels who have exceptional needs, whose needs can’t be met adequately through remote learning.”

Additional prioritized students are those in Pre-K, K, and grades 1 and 2. Those students are back in school four days per week. Wednesday, traditionally a half-day for Wellesley’s elementary school students, is a remote learning half-day.

The biggest consideration on bringing back the rest of the grades centers around social distancing. The WPS have in place a a 6-feet social distance standard, which is in keeping with the Centers for Disease Control standard.

“We believe that standard needs to stay in place for now” to prevent in school transmission, Lussier said. In addition, “We don’t have anymore spaces to be bringing back any more whole grade levels.”

Lussier also cited as concerns the increased need for contact tracing that would result should additional whole grades be brought back into the schools; lunch-time, with its no-mask environment; and bus transportation needs for K – grade 6 students who live over two miles from school. By state law, the district must provide transportation to those students.

School budget, FY2022

Under guidelines the School Committee received from the Select Board, there is to be an increase in the FY22 budget of no more than 2.5%. “That’s quite slim,” said Linda Chow, “but certainly a reflection on the times we’re in and the impact of COVID on town finances.”

In FY2021, Town Meeting voted to appropriate $80,379,651 to the schools. A 2.5% increase would boost the FY22 schools budget by a little over $2 million.

The budget will be strictly a service-level affair, the goal being to hang onto all educational programming at the level at which it now operates at the very least. There will be no expected investments in new programs. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that all current programming is safe from potential cuts.

One line item that can substantially fluctuate upward: the money set aside for special education needs. The FY22 budget currently is based on the town’s known special education needs, but variables are always possible. “The budget is based on only the known costs we have in special education, or that can be reasonably anticipated,” Lussier said.

Level services may also need to include additional student interventions to close education gaps created by the pandemic.

Wellesley schools, FY22 Budget


Upcoming meetings:

Jan. 26: School Committee meeting
Watch School Committee Meetings online at wellesleymedia.org
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Feb. 2: School Committee meeting and public hearing. The community is invited to ask specific questions and make comments during this meeting.

Feb. 9: School Committee votes on the budget

Mar. 3: Advisory Committee will review the SC budget

Apr./May 2021: Town Meeting

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Filed Under: COVID-19, Education, Government, Wellesley High School

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Now you apply for your Wellesley RDF permit online

January 20, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley has increasingly been offering various permits online, and now has added Recycling & Disposal Facility permits to that list.

When we checked in on this last week, a couple of people had already used the new system, which allows residents to get permits that let them use the RDF.

The RDF, in an effort to encourage use, is also readying a welcome package for new residents, and the Department of Public Works is planning surveys to understand why those using third-party services are opting for that over (or in addition to) the RDF.

Wellesley’s online permitting push, for everything from building permits to dog licenses, actually preceded the pandemic. But it’s been a key tool for the town to use in serving residents in light of COVID-19 protocols.

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Filed Under: Environment, Government

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Wellesley Business Buzz: Local restaurants get state grants; get or renew your Business Certificate

January 18, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Our roundup of the latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

Local restaurants get state grants

The Commonwealth has announced $78.5 million in awards to nearly 1,600 additional small businesses in the third round of grants through the COVID-19 Small Business Grant Program, and four Wellesley businesses were on the list. They individually scored grants of between $50K and $75K, for a total of $275K among them.

Recipients included restaurants Jin’s and the LLC owning Door No. 7, now morphing into Wellesley Tavern, as well as StretchMed and Salon One.

Ten other Wellesley outfits reaped state grants during two previous rounds, with grants being administered by the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corp.

This latest round of funding was for small businesses in sectors hit especially hard during the pandemic.

Wellesley grants

Filing or renewing a business certificate in Wellesley

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Employees only past this Town Hall door

Because The Swellesley Report is an official business these days, we actually need to keep our Business Certificate up to date. Wellesley Town Hall made the renewal process easy for us.

We filled out the one-page form ahead of time (the Town Clerk’s office offered to fill it out and have it ready for us, though we needed to change a couple of things). Then the Clerk’s office arranged for one of its staff member s to meet us in the foyer and witness us signing the document. Five minutes and $60 later, we were all set for another four years of media empire glory

You can read more on who needs to fill out such a certificate and how to renew it on the town’s website.


Got tips on business openings, closings or whatever, feel free to email us here: [email protected]

Also email us if you’re interested in sponsoring our weekly Wellesley Business Buzz roundup.

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Filed Under: Business, Government

Wellesley Health Department social workers offering residents a group online chat

January 16, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

In light of recent attack on the U.S. Capitol and continued stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wellesley Health Department is hosting an online chat via Zoom with its social workers, who will be there to listen and share tips for self-care. The event, which could become a regular thing if there’s interest, takes place on Thursday, Jan. 28 from 1-2 p.m.

To register, please email your name and phone number to Senior Community Social Worker Joyce Saret at [email protected]

warren building rec health department


  • Thank you Swellesley Report supporters & on to Year Sweet 16
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Filed Under: COVID-19, Government, Health

10 takeaways from the Town of Wellesley’s FY20 annual report

January 14, 2021 by Bob Brown 2 Comments

wellesley annual reportWellesley’s 139th Annual Town Report is out, both online and in hard copy, and as usual it is filled with lots of interesting facts and figures.

The information in this roughly 400-page report for the period between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020 (fiscal year 2020), is sort of warped considering that it contains a solid four months of pandemic-influenced data, so that must be taken into consideration when reading through it.

Here are 10 items that popped out for us. (What jumps out to you? [email protected])

Unprecedented report: The word “unprecedented” somewhat surprisingly only appears twice in the entire report, once under Wellesley Free Library’s report and once under the School Committee. COVID appears 77 times. Disappointingly, not a single “abundance of caution.”

unprecedented annual report

Affordable Wellesley. A word you might not expect to find in the report, “affordable,” actually does make several appearances, including here: “In January, the Town attained the state mandated 10% affordable housing threshold with the approval of the 40R project at the Wellesley Office Park.” Not to say the town doesn’t have plenty of work to do in diversifying its housing stock, but it’s a start, and makes it harder for developers to exploit loopholes.

Diminishing demo targets: While teardowns are not uncommon in town, there are nowhere near as many as there were just a few years ago, when anywhere between 90 and and 100 was the going rate. There were 44 this past fiscal year, down from 45 the year before, which was up a few from the high 30s the fiscal year before that.

Big earners: It’s impossible to go through the report without snooping into who is making what. A couple of town employees make enough individually to hit Wellesley’s $189K residential household median income mark, including top earner Wellesley Public Schools Supt. David Lussier. He seems to have made the right move by not leaping from his newspaper route back in the day and into a journalism career.

Wrong way carbon footprint: The Sustainable Energy Committee reports that Wellesley’s 2019 greenhouse gas emissions increased 0.5% above 2018 levels, bringing overall reductions to just under 12% since 2007. While electricity emissions decreased, commercial sector natural gas emissions jumped 36%.

Price check please: The Department of Weights and Measures checked 900 items in local retail stores to ensure they were priced (scanned) correctly (98% accuracy is the standard). Only three of eight retailers inspected passed the test. “More work needs to be done in this area to ensure correct and accurate pricing in retail stores,” the report reads. So check those receipts people!

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Wellesley Public Schools hired its first director of DEI, and among accomplishments was planning the launch of an equity toolkit for educators.

Locked in: The Fire Department section is chock full of interesting numbers, but the one that raised our eyebrows was 96 for “person locked in home, car or elevator.” What? Locked out of home or car would make sense, but…As it turns out, this number does represent a bit of both A common situation is for a kid to get locked in a bathroom, or parents to get locked out of a house and a kid get locked in and doesn’t know how to open the door.

Police get sign language training: All officers attended basic sign language training, which provided them with an introduction to American Sign Language and key phrases they might need in the field.

Wellesley Farms: The Wellesley Health department issued 23 livestock permits, up from 19 the year before.

More: 15 things I learned from Wellesley’s annual report (Jan. 24, 2020)

 


  • Thank you Swellesley Report supporters & on to Year Sweet 16
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Filed Under: Education, Government

Natick issues boil water alert due to E. coli, some Wellesley homes affected

January 13, 2021 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Natick’s Department of Public Works issued an alert to residents on Wednesday that they should boil water for at least a minute before consuming it in light of E. coli bacteria being discovered in drinking water samples collected on Jan. 12.

The issue also affects around 80 homes in Wellesley. The Town of Wellesley’s Department of Public Works warns that “This order DOES AFFECT some Wellesley residential addresses that receive water service from Natick, although you pay a Town of Wellesley utility bill.  You may not be aware that your water is actually provided by Natick.”

Water should also be boiled before using it in food preparation, brushing teeth, and washing dishes, or use bottled water. E. coli bacteria can make you ill, and is a particular concern for those with weakened immune systems.

This warning applies until further notice.

According to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, “Pets:The same precautions to protect humans apply to pets. Do not expose aquatic organisms (e.g., fish) to water containing elevated bacteria levels. If you need to refresh the organism’s water, use appropriately boiled or bottled water.”

Natick has removed water sources that tested positive and has increased water disinfection treatments.

“The town hopes to resolve this inconvenience within the next few days,” according to a Natick recording.

When the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection issues a public health order, public water suppliers are required to notify customers.

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Filed Under: Environment, Government

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Tue 26

Rum tasting and history talk

January 26 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Wed 27

Online history lecture: Petticoat Whalers

January 27 @ 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Thu 28

Banking on Our Value panel discussion

January 28 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

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