Many parents in the North Penn School District are at least partially rejoicing after the school board voted unanimously Thursday night on a return-to-school timeline.
According to Superintendent Dr. Curtis Dietrich, most of the video conferencing equipment the district recently ordered, including 50-inch televisions with cameras, Bluetooth microphones and audio/visual carts/stands, has either been delivered or is en route.
The initial focus of deployment of this equipment will be in kindergarten through second-grade classrooms.
In addition, Dietrich said the COVID-19 metrics are continuing to improve in Montgomery County and the North Penn area
“Things have been progressing nicely in the county, and actually our positivity rate is a bit lower than it was last week when we met,” Dietrich said. “The incidence number is roughly about the same so we’re holding steady in that regard. We believe that the metrics are there.”
Students will be required to wear masks at all times on school buses and in schools (except during lunch) and practice social distancing whenever possible. Six feet of distance will be maintained in school buildings, although this will be difficult to enforce on school buses. Good hygiene practices will be reinforced.
“The fact of the matter remains, though, that you can’t eliminate all of the risks, so everybody needs to go into this knowing that it’s impossible to eliminate all risk for exposure to COVID-19 or the coronavirus,” Dietrich said.
The timeline the board voted on Thursday night will be detailed in a Return to School Guide the district plans to release next week. Families will be asked to select a hybrid or virtual option for their students by Oct. 9.
According to the timeline discussed at the school board meeting, students whose families opt for the hybrid model will be assigned to A or B groups, possibly by alphabetical order of last name, the week of Oct. 19. That same week, teachers and staff will return in-person to the district’s buildings and offices.
The following week, Oct. 26, kindergarten, first- and second-grade students, as well as students in self-contained special education classrooms, will return to school in person on a hybrid schedule.
Students in grades 7 and 10, and new students will attend an orientation or transition day on Nov. 4 or 5, depending on their A/B group assignments.
All students, except those opting for full-virtual, will return in-person on Nov. 9. The detailed hybrid schedule is still to be determined, Dietrich said.
“All of that is still a matter of a lot of discussion right now,” Dietrich said. “What we do know for certain though is that hybrid means you will be assigned to either an A Day or a B Day, and there would be certain days of the week when you will be having your children go to school and be in person, it will be the other days of the week when you will be tuning in because we will be live streaming those classes.”
Two important things to note: the district will take care to ensure that students in the same families will attend in-person on the same hybrid schedule, and the virtual option is still available for anyone who doesn’t want to attend in person, and those students should be able to stay with the teachers they have now.
“If families say they would still like to have that virtual way, we will not be changing teachers, at least at this juncture,” Dietrich said. “That is not our anticipated recommendation or solution. In fact, they would be with the teachers that they have… They would not attend on either A Day or B Day, they would tune in and continue with their present teachers on both A Day and B Day.”
Board Vice President Christian Fusco highlighted that the reason the board is able to have this discussion and make this decision is because Montco and the North Penn area have cooperated and the virus rates are following suit.
“Our county is doing a fantastic job. We are a model for the entire rest of the country,” Fusco said. “And that is the case because the vast majority of people have been responsible, have done the right thing. We really are going to need the community to work with us on this. There may be a tough decision you have to make.”
Fusco asked if families would be expected to screen their children before sending them to school, and keep them home if they have a fever above a certain temperature, or other symptoms.
“Do not send your children to school if you have suspicions there could be Covid or some kind of illness occurring,” Dietrich said. “So we want to continue to beat that drum, continue to drive that point home.”
However, it’s important to note that the district wants people to feel safe and comfortable reporting a positive case without fear of reprisal.
“We don’t want to have sick shaming,” said board member Jon Kassa. “We don’t want to have a culture within the building or across the entire district that people are afraid to report. We need to understand the importance of that and reinforce it as often as possible so that we can keep the schools open.”
The board plans to continue working out the specifics of the district’s return-to-school timeline at next week’s Education, Curriculum and Instruction (ECI) group meeting, at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 6. NPSD coordinator communications media Robert Gillmer plans to demo the streaming equipment technology at that meeting.
See also:
Discussions Continue Regarding How And When To Reopen North Penn Schools
North Penn Holds Preliminary Discussion On Potentially Reopening Schools Under Hybrid Model
Parents Express Concerns, Frustrations With Distance Learning At North Penn School Board Meeting
Editorial: North Penn Continues To Show It’s Up For Challenges Posed By COVID-19
North Penn School Board Avoids Furloughs, Votes To Reduce Hours For 600-Plus Employees
