 This program is brought to you by Cable Franchise V's and generous donations from viewers like you Hello, and welcome to the Amherst Weekly Report Amherst Media's weekly news roundup I'm Faith Gregory and these are the biggest news stories out of Amherst, Massachusetts This past week we saw three nearby colleges reverse their previous reopening plans for the fall 2020 semester The University of Massachusetts Amherst Smith College and Mount Holyoke College have all significantly reduced the number of students They will allow back on campus Smith College announced on Wednesday August 6th that it would have no in-person classes The University of Massachusetts Amherst announced its revised plan on Thursday August 7th through a letter Chancellor Sipaswamy released to the campus community In the letter he said that this decision was made in response to the worsening conditions of the COVID-19 Pandemic nationally and that while the prior instructional plan will remain the same The University will no longer offer on-campus housing for students whose coursework is entirely remote UMass stated in its reasoning that as of July 30th six UMass students who lived on campus tested positive for the novel coronavirus Mount Holyoke announced its decision to not bring back students in the fall shortly after UMass and Said that students currently living at Mount Holyoke who can't return home or students who cannot perform academically at home are welcome to stay on campus Universities aren't the only schools moving their facilities online this week The Northampton School Committee decided Thursday August 6th that the Northampton Public Schools will take place remotely this fall until at least November 4th The Amherst-Pellum and Amherst Regional School Committees decided on the same night that the Amherst-Pellum Regional Schools will also go remote until Mid-November in a phasing method called Model 4 where select groups of students will be educated in person and everyone else will learn remotely Here's what they had to say about the Model 4 method from my perspective in our perspective out of the four that are there phasing Model 4 would be The preference for a lot of the reasons that you heard from me and from Mr. Siddique earlier just Seems like it makes sense Logistically it makes sense. I know it holds out secondary kids a little longer than some people Might want but I think I think just it If we focus on a small group at the beginning and particularly the groups that have the Least access to distance learning. I think that's in our best interest And I think you know, I know some people think it's too aggressive some people do it's conservative But you know for our perspective, I think that's where if we land there That seems like the best approach from my personal perspective Springfield Public Schools will go the same route following a Springfield School Committee decision on the same day to move schools to virtual facilities Many of the universities and school committee cited a rise of COVID-19 cases across the state This is a trend that has been visible in Amherst and nearby towns According to the weekly COVID-19 health report for Massachusetts for August 12th Northampton and Amherst reported a combined number of 30 positive cases in two weeks prior Charlie Baker held a briefing on Tuesday August 11th regarding the COVID-19 uptick in Massachusetts Baker released a colored coded map of Massachusetts showing the severity of COVID cases in each individual town The map will be updated regularly as COVID risks fluctuate in different communities Here's what Baker had to say regarding the new mapping process for COVID cases in Massachusetts Rad obviously indicates Municipalities that have more than eight cases of COVID per hundred thousand people And this is based on a national and global public health standard. That's extremely high risk for COVID infection yellow indicates municipalities between four and eight cases per hundred thousand people or a moderate level of risk and Depending on the community there could be areas where trends are moving in the wrong direction Although in about half of these communities. We've seen downward trends for the past two or four weeks green indicates municipalities with less than four cases per hundred thousand and White indicates less than five total cases of COVID-19 reported in the most recent 14 day period The lowest number of cases here in the Commonwealth Regarding reopening Baker said quote we can continue to reopen Massachusetts get back to something like the new normal But only if everyone continues to bring their fight to this virus Next the University of Massachusetts Amherst has opted to cancel the 2020 mass football season as of Tuesday august 11th The announcement came in the form of a press release Athletic director Brian Bamford said the continuing challenges surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic posed too great a risk And that attempting to play a season would not have placed the members of their program in the safest situation possible In other news an informal house session of the Massachusetts house of representatives took place on Monday august 10th And referred a petition establishing a moratorium on the mcast test to the committee on joint rules reported and rule suspended And to the committee on education This petition is presented by james hawkins a democrat and representative from adalboro, Massachusetts More locally the Amherst town council also met on monday august 10th in a special meeting The town council revisited the issue of polling locations for the september 1st state primary election and november 3rd federal election At a previous meeting the town council approved a plan to consolidate the seven polling stations into one located at the Amherst regional high school gym Monday they passed a motion to reconsider their decision to relocate in-person voting for all town precincts at Amherst pelham regional high school After moving to reconsider the vote they brought up a motion to move three polling stations precincts 2 4 and 10 To Amherst pelham regional high school leaving all other precincts in their previous voting locations In state politics the Amherst democratic town committee is hosting a virtual candidates night with ed markey Jim McGovern and joe kennedy the 3rd on sunday august 16th at 7 p.m The candidates night is advertised on the Amherst democratic town committee's facebook and will be held over zoom Finally a new petition has appeared on the website care two petitions demanding for reparations for Amherst, massachusetts The petition which is sponsored by michelle miller of district one and corine andrews and matthew andrews of district two Formally request the town of amherst partnership to end structural racism and achieve racial equity and to establish a funding source devoted to local reparations The petition calls out the 80 000 set aside from the town budget for investment to identify and dismantle institutional racism As well as the formation of a human rights commission and the adoption of a human rights policy Saying that while they are confident these measures are making an impact. There is more work to be done The petition specifies what we're asking for is the town's sincere partnership in confronting the legacy and current manifestations of structural racism here in amherst That's all the news for this week. Thank you for tuning in to the amherst weekly report I'm faith greggery and we hope to see you again at the same time next week