MANCHESTER, NH – It appears that high school proms will be happening in Manchester this spring, but the idea still drew concern from some members of the Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC).
During Superintendent Dr. John Goldhardt’s updates to the BOSC, Manchester School District Director of Communications Andrew Tolland and Assistant Superintendent Jennifer Gillis announced that proms will take place under state guidelines for weddings, the closest set of guidelines available from the state.
Proms at all four of the city’s public high schools will have to take place outside and other unspecified social distancing and cleaning protocols will have to be followed as well.
Arthur Beaudry (Ward 9) voiced concern with a statement made by Goldhardt in March indicating that proms could not be done safely, specifically toward a lack of understanding regarding why he changed his mind on the issue.
Beaudry was also concerned with a lack of specifics on planning for proms, which are tentatively scheduled to take place in late May and early June.
Goldhardt said he received numerous complaints from district families in March saying they were already planning for spring proms prior to the March statement and that he is concerned with small “faux proms” taking place outside the purview of the district, potentially without safety protocols. In turn, that possible lack of safety protocols could lead to increased COVID-19 rates among students.
Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig agreed with Goldhardt’s statement regarding the “faux proms,” adding that her office has received numerous comments from families of students concerned about how many key life moments that they have lost during the pandemic, leading Craig to believe that many high school seniors would engage in prom activities with or without the district’s approval.
There were also statements comparing proms to sporting events, but Beaudry challenged this notion, stating that the largest high school sporting events had 40-50 athletes at most while proms would hold 200 to 300 students.
Manchester Health Department Director Anna Thomas did not say that she would support or oppose the concept of a prom given that she has not received details regarding prom planning from the district. She also noted that she’d prefer limitations on events until approximately 70 to 90 percent of the population receives vaccinations, creating herd immunity. Until that point, she said that all events are simply a question of how much risk an organization is willing to accept and what mitigation efforts they are willing to take to reduce that risk.
Beaudry made a motion that any student seeking to attend a prom first receive a negative COVID-19 test two days prior to the event, but Craig said this would be infeasible based on the time needed to get results from testing as well as a lack of usefulness if the tests are taken too early. She added that some students do not have easy access to testing facilities.
Leslie Want (Ward 4) asked if the district could provide students with rapid-response tests, but Thomas said that those tests are usually only available for people who show symptoms of COVID-19.
Beaudry’s motion was seconded by William Shea (Ward 7), with Shea withdrawing his second and making a motion to allow the district time to present a plan and return with it to the BOSC for approval. Shea’s motion was initially seconded by Karen Soule (Ward 3), but Soule withdrew her second after she realized that the intent of Shea’s motion did not include attached benchmarks to COVID-19 rates indicating whether the proms would be allowed to occur or not.
After Soule withdrew her second, Beaudry provided a second to Shea’s motion.
In response, Craig and others on the BOSC expressed concern over micromanaging Goldhardt and other district officials.
Shea’s motion failed 11-2, with only Beaudry and Shea voting in favor. Kelly Thomas (Ward 12) was absent.
With the defeat of the motion, district administration will move forward with planning for the proms.
Goldhardt also announced that the state has allowed a waiver from Governor Chris Sununu’s requirement for all schools to provide five-day-a-week in-person instruction by April 19, allowing them to keep their target date of May 3 for a full return. However, after April 19, Manchester public schools must provide instruction of some form five days a week. Until this point, MANSD had been providing instruction four days a week, with Wednesdays used for deep cleaning schools, lesson planning and one-on-one interventions between teachers and students.
Also during the meeting, the BOSC voted 12-1 to allow athletes on visiting teams playing high school sporting events in Manchester to bring two fans with them. Until this point, only Manchester’s schools and Salem remained among NHIAA Division I schools in prohibiting visiting fans, with Nashua going as far as to allow fans to attend events without masks according to MANSD Athletic Director Christine Telge-Pariseau.
Beaudry voted against this motion, with Kelly Thomas and Joseph Lachance (At-Large) absent.
Last week Concord High School announced seniors had spent several months working on a strategic COVID-compliant plan that was accepted by the school board for a prom to take place inside the school.
