County proposes closing schools

Vote postponed: Board delays action after 60 commenters protest

“The intent of this is to get control of what’s going on now so things in fact don’t accelerate going into later on in December.”

NORRISTOWN » Nearly 500 people tuned into Thursday morning’s Montgomery County Board of Health meeting as officials heard a proposal to stop in-person instruction and sports in schools for two weeks as COVID-19 cases continue rising locally.

The board heard about 60 public comments, with all but a few voicing objections to closing schools.

“At this point I would ask that we vote for a recommendation to school districts, and then allow school districts to make the appropriate decision, and this is coming from somebody who believes this is going to be a very

— Michael Laign, chair of the county’s health board

dark three months that our country is going to go through,” said Montgomery County resident Brian Shapella.

Wyncote resident Danielle Otero was one of the few commenters who appeared to be in favor of the option. “Right now health must come before education,” Otero said.

The nearly three-hour session was broadcast on Zoom as the members of the county’s health board presented the proposed order and mulled over the comments from county residents.

The order said in part that “all schools, both public and private in Montgomery County are required to support virtual education only, for the period of Nov. 23 through Dec. 6 with the potential for expansion beyond this date. This requirement includes virtual education only and canceling of school sanctioned extracurricular activities including sports games and practices.”

According to Michel Masters, division director of communicable disease control and prevention for the Montgomery County Office of Public Health, Thursday’s initial recommendations came in collaboration with Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh as well as input from the CHOP PolicyLab.

Masters cited increasing rates in positivity and incidents over the past month as a reason for the action. Four weeks ago, the county’s incident rate was 40.1 per hundred thousand, and currently stands at 106.9

per hundred thousand, she said. The positivity rate was 2.31 percent four weeks ago and has risen to 5.2 percent.

With that increase, state health of ficials classif y Montgomery County as having “substantial transmission and concerning percent-positivity.”

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s COVID-19 Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard, positivity rates less than 5 percent provide the threshold to stipulate that a county is suppressing the virus and keeping the spread under control.

Since March 7, Montgomery County has had 15,307 cases and 847 deaths, according to the county’s COVID-19 resources webpage.

The public health office “is very dedicated to keeping students in school using a blended and hybrid learning model, but we identified that this order is a tool for mitigation based on what we’re seeing in the data, based on the increase in numbers, the increase of social gatherings surrounding the holiday,” Masters said.

Michael Laign, chair of the county’s health board, agreed.

“The intent of this is to get control of what’s going on now so things in fact don’t accelerate going into later on in December,” he said.

A majority of the parents who spoke vocalized concerns about the effects on children.

“It is an absolute robbery, not only of their social engagement with their peers, but it is a robbery of their education, which we will not know the outcome of the impact for years to come,” said Towamencin Township resident Barbara Roque.

“How is closing the school system going to mitigate the spread? It’s not,” said Sarah Parmer, a nurse and mother of three living in Montgomery County.

Severa l pa r ticipa nt s raised questions about the statistics driving the decision for virtual learning.

“If you want to shut the schools down, you must provide the data to support that decision,” said John Niels, head of schools at Coventry Christian Schools in Pottstown. “That’s scientific, that’s ethical, otherwise you won’t have any legitimacy for the decision.”

Dr. Sharon Stoll, a neurologist and immunologist at the Yale School of Medicine, who said she works out of the Philadelphia area and has children enrolled in Montgomery County schools, noted that the decision to implement a solely virtual learning plan for the time being could do more harm than good.

“By shutting down the schools, you’re doing the exact opposite of what you intend to do, and that’s coming from a neurologist, an immunologist and a researcher,” she said.

“In addition to that, it’s also devastating for the children,” she went on to say. “As a neurologist, I specialize in brain development. I can tell you these kids that are learning virtually that are homeschooled, I can’t even imagine what these kids are going to be like 10, 15, 20 years from now because the brain is forming at an early age, and this is going to have disastrous effects on our youth.”

Fellow physician Dr. Jim Thomas added that “we need to allow the physicians to help mitigate as we continue in-person learning.”

“Perhaps we can help provide these necessary

nutrients and mitigate the damage of any uptick as we pursue continued in-person learning to prevent the depression and the harm that’s coming from isolating the children,” Thomas said.

For other parents, like Fort Washington resident Lisa Burns, whose children attend school within the Upper Dublin School District, she said the decision should be made on a district-by-district basis.

“I beg of you to please consider the school districts making their own decisions at their own level,” she said.

“So I implore you if you’re going to make a widespread decision, support it with data, show us the rationale and then give us a recom

mendation, not a mandate,” Niehls said.

The order, if implemented, would apply to public, private and religious institutions throughout the state’s third most populous county.

“This is not a Catholic school or a public school issue. This is a child issue,” said Denise Judge, a principal of a Catholic school in North Wales.

Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale has advocated for in-person learning time and time again over the past several months.

“I have heard from countless taxpayers and families across both the county and the greater Philadelphia region who agree with me

and demand in-person education,” Gale said in a statement emailed to reporters following the meeting. “This prolonged lockdown is causing far more harm than good.”

Laign expressed his appreciation for the public’s participation.

“I really just want to thank everybody for the time they’ve spent at this, and what I feel are very thoughtful, and well constructed comments to share with the board, and I’m sure my fellow board members feel the same way.”

Laign, and other members of the county health board moved to recess the meeting until noon today before taking further action.