BACK TO SCHOOL
Officials approve 2 plans for return of in-person classes
The Spring-Ford School District is pressing ahead with plans to return students to the classroom by Nov. 12.
Last week, the board unanimously adopted the plan for students in grades kindergarten through 6th and Monday night, the plan for grades 7-12 was adopted by a vote of 7-2.
Board members Tom DiBello and Clifford Jackson voted against the plan for the upper grades.
More than 250 people participated or watched Monday’s meeting online.
Families in the lower grades must choose between virtual or in-person education for all five days. That choice must be made by Thursday, Oct. 8.
Families in the upper grades will choose between all virtual or a hybrid model with two days in-person on either Mondays
and Thursdays; or Tuesdays and Fridays. Wednesdays will remain online learning for all students in grades 7-12.
Families must choose online or hybrid for the upper grades by Oct. 14.
Starting on Feb. 2, if COVID-19 infection rates remain low enough, classes will resume in person for all students except for those who choose to remain in the virtual academy.
Students who attend in-person school will be required to wear masks at all times, except during lunch and “masks breaks,” and those who do not have one will be provided with one. Those who refuse and do not have a medical excuse will be sent home.
Masks will be worn on the bus, but there will be no social distancing on the buses. Buses will have assigned seats to assist with contact tracing if necessary.
K-6 Plan
• Parents must indicate in a survey that closes Oct. 8 whether their child will continue with virtual or attend class in person.
• Those choosing virtual will be assigned “virtual-only” classrooms and may not have the same teacher.
• Those who choose inschool instruction will remain in the same classroom for themost part, limiting movement and contact with others throughout the school day.
• Desks will be distanced at six feet “as much as possible,” depending on how many students return for in-person instruction.
• Lunch will be “grab and go” with students eating at their desks.
• Recess will take place, with extra precautions and art, physical education will take place in classrooms. In grades 5 and 6, teachers will change classrooms, not students.
• Parents will be provided with a health checklist and students exhibiting symptoms should be kept home.
• The district will provide a weekly communication regarding infection numbers in the Spring-Ford community as a whole, but not specific to the district.
7-12 Plan
Unlike the lower grades, no Spring-Ford students in grades 7 through 12 will have an option for all five days in class.
Instead, they must chose among a hybrid (or blended) program with some days in person and some online; the school’s cyber academy program; or remaining virtual with the same teachers as those in person.
Those who choose to return to the classrooms will be divided into two groups, blue and gold. Blue group students would be in class on Mondays and Thursdays; gold group students on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Superintendent David Goodin said that schedule is designed to avoid five consecutive days without teacher interactions.
All students would be online doing synchronous work on Wednesdays under the plan.
Because the upper grades are provided with as many as 200 courses, and because of a teacher shortage that existed before the pandemic that and is now even more severe, the district cannot provide different teachers for online and in-person instruction for each class, according to Goodin’s presentation.
As a result, online students would study the same material as in-person classes, but might not always get synchronous instruction with the students in the classroom; a circumstance that DiBello said is the reason he does not support the plan.
“My fear is students are going to get curriculum two days a week, and left on their own three days a week,” DiBello said during the Monday night special meeting dedicated to selecting a plan for the upper grades.
DiBello said other districts are using cameras and doing live-streaming “and that’s where I struggle.”
Jackson said the district is choosing a plan that was not on the parent survey and so “we have no data” on whether more parents prefer it.
Last week, the district had looked at different options for the other grades, but plans changed when the
teachers union indicated that trying to teach in-person classes and do synchronous learning for online students “is like doing two fulltime jobs at the same time.”
Jackson and DiBello were not the only people opposed to the plan selected by the board.
Lots of Reaction
During the online meeting, a tidal wave of comments was provided to the point that School Board President Colleen Zasowski had to eventually limit public comment to twominutes and cut it off as the hour got late.
On official estimate by a reporter put about 65 to 70 percent of the comments opposed to the hybrid plan.
“The virtual option does not work,” parent Michael Lebiedzinski told the board. “Teachers will unconsciously ignore remote students. We all know that, but no one wants to say it.”
“I implore the board who has this motion in front of them to listen to the other callers,” said Jill Schadler, who suggested Goodwin should resign as superintendent. “This plan will not work and we don’t support it.”
Hope Bodenschatz said anything less than four live instruction days a week “is a step backward.”
Danielle Folino said “I’m just flabbergasted that any of you feel this is an acceptable plan to go on.”
“If you’re scared to send you kid back to school five days, you should be scared to send them for two days,” said Joy Crowle. The hybrid plan “doesn’t make any sense.”
“We’re so falling so drastically behind all the other districts that have kids in school. This plan does not look into what the kids need and the kids deserve,” said Faith DeRose. “We’re a Blue Ribbon district.”
Some Spoke in Favor
But not everyone opposed the plan and some thanked the board for recognizing that the loudest voices may not necessarily represent the majority of the parents.
“These parents need to stop thinking about just themselves,” said Marie Cagliola. “You’re just helping the loudest get a plan for one group, not all of them.”
Kate Palladino said the survey the district sent out did not have a hybrid option, so it’s unknown how many in the district would have indicated a preference for it. “More families will choose hybrid as an inschool option than would with a five-days in-school model,” she said.
Yvonne O’Dea, a Spring-Ford teacher for 25 years, disagreed with the view that students are getting less with a hybrid model. “I will take two days, I of course want to see kids five days, but 2,000 kids moving around the hallways makes people uncomfortable. This hybrid plan is going to have to work.”
Syl Kailey, a Spring-Ford senior, told the board “full time is not completely feasible at the moment. Hybrid has its faults, but it is still the best option for students.”
Of course, the coronavirus has the final say in what happens in the months to come.
If infection numbers in Montgomery and/or Chester County move from “moderate” to “substantial,” parents will be notified that Spring-Ford class will return to all virtual.