Upper Darby goes all-virtual to start the school year
The Upper Darby School District will begin the 202021 school year with virtual learning only following a 7-1 vote at a special meeting of the school board Tuesday night.
“The problem right now in Delaware County, and particularly in Upper Darby, is there is an upward trend (in coronavirus cases),” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Daniel McGarry during the online meeting. “As people are a lot more relaxed, they’re not following social distancing guidelines and they’re not wearing their masks if they are below 6 feet, we are seeing an upward trend.”
McGarry noted the district last month put out an intricate flexible plan for online and in-person learning that split the district’s approximately 12,000 students into several cohorts to try to maintain safety amid the pandemic. He said he believed that model was best until seeing data that showed an upward trend in infection rates among teenagers and those up to age 29, and discussing guidance for schools Tuesday with two medical professionals from the University of Pennsylvania.
“If we have to quarantine staff for 14 days and groups of students for 14 days, ultimately we would be in a position where we would have to shut down,” he said. “Right now, it would be unwise for me to say to this board and this public that if the data is showing an upward trend, to reopen for in-person instruction if the data is increasing and not decreasing.”
Upper Darby follows the lead of the Chester Upland School District, which also recently announced it would move to online-only instruction this fall. Other districts in the county have approved combination online/in-person instructional models when schools reopen.
McGarry said the district should revisit the idea of inperson instruction in September and October, perhaps bringing students back to the district’s 10 elementary schools first if warranted. He was hesitant to include middle school students in an initial return, as the model previously proposed required shifting more than 400 students from the Beverly Hills Middle School to the Drexel Hill Middle School.
A prior release from district Communications Director Aaronda Beauford indicated the district would continue to provide breakfast and lunch if schools open in a virtual environment, but would not be able to provide internet service. The district is working to identify free or inexpensive internet access resources, she said.
“I know that students need to be in school. I know that is best for our kids,” said McGarry. “I don’t think virtual learning for an extended period of time is best for all kids. This is not going to be a popular discussion. But I also don’t think it’s wise to reopen schools right now in an in-person setting when the data that I’m trying to learn about and figure out does not seem to be trending in a downward location that I’d like it to.”
Frank Salerno, director of elementary education, explained that elementary school students would be broken down into two cohorts – a morning group and an afternoon group. The five-day school plan would include both synchronous learning, or real-time instruction provided by a teacher virtually, and asynchronous learning that students can do on their own, he said.
Kindergartens, which have always been provided in half-day increments, will keep that same model with a morning and afternoon group virtually, he said.
Director of Secondary Education Dr. Greg Manfre said middle school students would all receive synchronous learning in the morning and asynchronous learning in the afternoon. That schedule breaks out 31-minute periods with two-minute breaks between and staggers start times for the two middle schools by half an hour.
The high school schedule provides for four, 45-minute periods per day of synchronous instruction, as well as four “skinny” periods of
30-minutes per day that might be used for things like asynchronous learning, music, reading, or advancement placement.
Various times are set aside in each grade level for “brain breaks,” teacher meetings, parent discussions, lunch and teacher preparation times. Each of the teaching models would also meet or exceed the required number of instructional hours for students in a given school year and comply with staff contracts.
School board Member David Neill, the sole vote against an online-only model Tuesday, asked if certain students requiring additional attention, such as those with autism, could receive in-person instruction in small groups, but McGarry said he did not think that was feasible right now given the rising COVID case count.
McGarry did note, however, that extracurricular activities already taking place at district facilities, like clubs or athletics, could continue under guidelines that include social distancing or limited contact where possible.
Community members chimed in on the decision via phone message or email, which were read aloud during the meeting. Some said their children had not fared well with online learning in the spring and others argued that instruction should be completely asynchronous to accommodate parents’ schedules. Some parents questioned how special education students or those who speak English as a second language could be given proper instruction.
McGarry said the district will work with families to ensure students receive the best possible instruction in all circumstances.
“I understand the frustration,” he said. “Believe me, the frustration is on our side as much as anyone else’s. If we could get back to a normal situation, we would.”
“I have twin 5-year-olds that will be starting virtual kindergarten – I am as unhappy about this as anyone,” said school board member Dr. Meredith Hegg. “I just want people to understand we are not making these decisions lightly. We wish desperately that we could start with a hybrid option or even a full in-person option. We desperately wish for that, we are just not, in the current situation, prepared for that in terms of the way the numbers are looking. We have to keep our community safe, we have to keep our healthcare workers safe and not overload our hospitals, and so I just want every community member to understand we are right there with you.”
“It would be really nice if in reviewing the massive amount of information we did that we could have found a silver bullet that would either allow us to open a flexible cohort model or open fully in-person, but in this pandemic, the only silver bullet is a vaccine and that is still some months away,” said fellow board member Neil Desnoyers.
Director Don Fields also noted there are a significant number of households in the district with three generations living under one roof and that the board’s decision must be made from a public health perspective. He urged the community to practice patience as the district takes on this new and unprecedented challenge.
“We are all trying to navigate unknown territory and, for all intents and purposes, we are on our own,” he said. “The best thing we can do now is support each other.”