Let’s pretend Maria is a 16-year-old student who goes to Madison Park Vocational High School in Roxbury, while living in Hyde Park. It’s October, the Boston School Committee has decided on a hybrid model for her sophomore class. Maria takes the 32 bus through Roslindale to Forest Hills three times a week and picks up the Orange Line to Roxbury Crossing.

Now imagine only a third of the school’s students are physically there — around 300 — and one student tests positive for COVID-19. This is when, according to a spokesman for the Boston Public Schools, the Boston Public Health Commission would step in and conduct contact tracing, a method of preventing the spread of infectious disease by identifying people who have it, their contacts, and others who might have been exposed.

For COVID-19, this includes asking all of those parties to isolate at home voluntarily for 14 days while waiting for a test result. The commission, which has led tracing for the entire city, would “perform all official contact tracing and case investigation for confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 for the City of Boston, including those that attend or work with BPS,” according to school officials.

It sounds straightforward, but District Five City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo says that contact tracing for students won’t be that simple and requires better planning. Now that Boston Public School officials are delaying the start of school for students to September 21, there’s more time for consideration.

The current BPS plan does not include mandatory testing and references contact tracing three times, handing off the job to the commission at each point. Tracing is expected in some form or another because COVID-19 cases are anticipated, with officials saying on page 12 that they may have to close classrooms, schools, or even “the entire district” for a period of time.

Noticeably absent from all plans is one phrase: public transportation, with the only reference to the MBTA focused on free passes and mask wearing. That, Arroyo says, is concerning. A 2018 study from the office of Boston City Councilor At-Large Michelle Wu found that nearly two-thirds of teens surveyed used the T in the morning, and 71 percent used it to get home.

BPS has already ruled out a return to full-time, in-person instruction for the beginning of the year, but has not yet decided if learning will be entirely virtual. It’s inevitable that students will be returning in some form or another before a vaccine is widespread, and, subsequently, taking the T.

In the draft of Boston’s reopening plan, significant efforts are made to reduce the amount of children on each school bus for social distancing, but this will inevitably mean more youth will have to take public transportation. Arroyo said this is rooted in having to fund extra buses, and deal with an ongoing bus and bus driver shortage.

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the agency is expanding service on 23 bus routes beginning on August 30 to reduce crowding. Some of the routes, he said, tend to carry students to and from schools so the T is preparing for the possibility of at least some in-person learning.

“The level of uncertainty around what schools would be doing for learning models was a contributing factor to the MBTA reserving 5 percent of bus service hours as ‘flexible’ hours,”‘ he said.

Arroyo said in China and South Korea contact tracing has been so advanced that it can even break down where sick people were sitting on public transit, and which people around them were or weren’t ill. “We don’t have anything similar to that,” he said. The onus to resolve the issue shouldn’t be on BPS, he said, but on the MBTA, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, and even Gov. Charlie Baker.

The concern is that COVID has hit some neighborhoods worse than others, but on public transportation, the kids all melt together, then go to spaces with high indoor concentrations of people for extended periods of time. In East Boston, where youth make up 12 percent of the total BPS population, the positive test rate is at 8.8 percent, far above the state’s average test rate of 1.5 percent.

Districts must present their fall school reopening plans to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education later today.

SARAH BETANCOURT

 

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Dave Cavell’s withdrawal from the crowded Fourth Congressional District Democratic primary race shines a spotlight on the ranked-choice voting ballot question.

Private-pay childcare providers are struggling financially and wondering why they aren’t allowed to tap state aid, which is reserved for businesses serving families eligible for state subsidies.

A challenge to a Massachusetts hydro-electricity project is yanked from the ballot in Maine by that state’s highest court, which declared the referendum unconstitutional.

President Trump relaxes some visa rules for H-1B and L-1 applicants.

Opinion: Longmeadow school teacher Mark L. Bail sees lack of leadership from the Baker administration on the school reopening issue….David O’Brien of Holy Cross tries to find a middle ground in the abortion debate, which tends to be dominated by extremists.

 

FROM AROUND THE WEB             

 

BEACON HILL

A Boston Herald headline says closed-door conference committee negotiations have stalled over a police reform bill.

Attorney General Maura Healey announced settlements with four large apartment brokers in a case alleging they discriminated against low-income renters. (Boston Globe)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which has come under scrutiny for the recent outside corporate activities of its president, Betsy Nabel, was also warned in 2014 about her involvement with a company that did business with the hospital. (Boston Globe)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

House Ways and Means chairman Richard Neal tells the Springfield Republican editorial board that talks on another coronavirus stimulus package will restart soon and he anticipates Congress will get something passed. Of course, he’s said that before, months ago.

President Trump announces a historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. (Washington Post)

ELECTIONS

The US Postal Service warns Pennsylvania that mail-in ballots sent just before the deadline may not make it in time. (NBC)

Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse calls for an investigation into connections between the state Democratic Party and the allegations lodged against him last week. His opponent in the Democratic primary, US Rep. Richard Neal, denies any involvement. (Berkshire Eagle)

In their latest debate, US Rep. Seth Moulton’s two challengers attacked him on a variety of issues, including his challenge of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Eagle-Tribune)

The Telegram & Gazette looks back at the women’s suffrage movement — and ahead at what’s next for women’s rights.

Here we go again: President Trump, who spent years pushing the bogus idea that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore not eligible to be president, is giving voice to false claims that Kamala Harris, who was born in California, may not be a US citizen because of her parents’ immigration status. (Washington Post) Or, as a New York Times headline bluntly puts it, “Trump encourages racist conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris.”  NPR publishes five takeaways on the new Biden-Harris presidential ticket.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

A Fall River transatlantic shipper survives a COVID-19 scare by using a Paycheck Protection Program loan to keep his business afloat during his illness. (Herald News)

EDUCATION

Tensions grow among parents, teachers, school districts, and politicians over whether to reopen schools in person. (The Salem News) Some scientists say a “hybrid” middle ground model might be worst of all in terms of risks of spreading the coronavirus. (Boston Globe)

Boston teachers rally in support of reopening schools with remote learning. (Boston Globe)

Community colleges see an opportunity in the changed world of higher education. (State House News Service)

For some special needs students, in-person learning is essential. (DigBoston)

The state releases extensive guidance on youth sports. (Telegram & Gazette)

The Scituate schools superintendent pens a scathing letter to state officials saying they put local school districts in an untenable situation with the lack of a statewide education plan. (MassLive)

ARTS/CULTURE

WBUR profiles Richard Bento, the “Jesse James of community theater.”

Quincy takes a first step toward a potential John Adams presidential library with a request that the Boston Public Library send Adam’s 3,000 book collection home. (Patriot Ledger)

The Standard-Times tells a story about a New Bedford lighthouse that was never actually a lighthouse.

TRANSPORTATION

The MBTA extends a commuter rail discount through the end of the year for travel between Lynn and Boston. (State House News)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Farmers are struggling as the state declares an official drought. (MassLive) The Cape and Islands were declared to be under significant drought conditions by state Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides. (Cape Cod Times)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

The former president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association is ordered held on $100,000 bail after pleading not guilty to child rape charges. (Boston Herald)

The ACLU has sued the Boston Police Department to get information about its response to the Black Lives Matter protests and other issues. (Associated Press)

The city of Springfield hires retired SJC chief justice Justice Roderick Ireland to review the city’s scandal-ridden police department. (MassLive)

A sergeant in the Williamstown Police Department files a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment, bias, and retaliation by superiors. (Berkshire Eagle)