COVID-19 focus of Malvern School District’s annual report

Each year, school districts are required to present a report to the public. The Malvern School District’s Annual Report to the Public was presented during a Malvern School Board meeting Monday.

A focus of the presentation was the district’s response to the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Assistant Superintendent Lillian Harper gave information about how schools in the district have responded to the pandemic.

All of the schools have put into place safety measures including temperature checks for both staff and students, frequent hand washing and hand sanitizing along with limiting the amount of students on playgrounds at the same time, Harper said.

At Malvern Elementary School, 244 students began the year as remote learner. More than half of those students have returned to in- person classes and 64 students are currently remote learners.

Wilson Intermediate School currently has 61 remote learners in comparison to the 101 students who started the school year virtually.

At Malvern Middle School, 116 students began the year as remote learners. The number of remote learners has been reduced to 62.

Malvern High School was the only school in the district to see an increase in the number of remote learners.

In August, 165 learners were labeled as remote. That number has increased to 183, as of this month.

Harper noted that 42 students have returned to campus, but additional students have also transitioned to virtual learning.

Superintendent Brian Golden told the board that only a small population of students, approximately 80, have not been attending school in person or completing assignments online. District officials have been meeting to discuss how to reach these students who have been labeled as disengaged, Golden said.

He mentioned that during this unusual time, district officials are being flexible with students while still maintaining the integrity of the district.

Information was also presented during the meeting about the district’s gifted and talented services. In total, 170 students received gifted and talented services across the Malvern School District.

During the 2019- 20 school year, the district, gifted and talented services program was awarded an Act 56 award.

Golden told the board that this award is very difficult to receive.

Usually during the Annual Report to the Public, information in presented about how students performed on state assessments. Because schools ended in- person sessions in the spring because of COVID- 19, students did not complete most of these assessments, Harper said.

General information about the district was also presented.

All of the teachers in the district are licensed. Districtwide, 49 percent of teachers have bachelor degrees and 51 percent have master degrees.

At Malvern Elementary School, 54 percent of teachers have bachelor degrees and 46 percent have master degrees. Forty- six percent of teachers at Wilson Intermediate School have bachelor degrees and 54 percent have master degrees. At Malvern Middle School, 64 percent of teachers have bachelor degrees and 36 percent have master degrees.

Forty- one Malvern High School teachers have bachelor degrees and 59 percent have master degrees.

The demographics of the district are 53.5 percent Caucasian; 27.7 percent African American, 9.8 percent Hispanic; 8.5 percent two or more races; .3 percent American Indian/ Alaskan; .1 percent Asian and .1 percent Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander.

Seventy- six percent of Malvern students receive free and reduced lunches.