Schools react: North Penn watching; Souderton explains effect on schedule

FRANCONIA » Montgomery County health officials proposed order that schools in the county go all virtual for two weeks beginning Nov. 23 wouldn’t have much effect on Souderton Area School District, Superintendent Frank Gallagher told the Souderton Area School Board at a committee meeting Wednesday night.

“For Souderton Area School District, there’s not a huge impact because we don’t have students the week of Thanksgiving. It’s parent-teacher conferences. It always has been, and we will be doing them virtually,” Gallagher said at the Nov. 11 meeting. “The parents aren’t even coming in for

them. That was always the plan to do them virtually.”

County officials had been expected to vote on the proposal Thursday, but after hearing from opponents of the plan, recessed the meeting which will resume today.

In the North Penn district, administrators are closely monitoring the county health department’s discussions, district spokeswoman Christine Liberaski said Thursday afternoon.

“We’re watching it, just like everybody else, and hope to have more information after tomorrow’s meeting,” Liberaski said. She added that a planned “Community Conversation” online forum

with district Superintendent Curt Dietrich scheduled for noon Friday has been postponed so district staff can monitor developments.

Gallagher said at the Souderton meeting that he knows some families will be traveling or having get-togethers during the holidays.

“This mitigation strategy will help families,” he said.

“We want to keep schools open,” he said, “and to do these short-term closures will allow us to keep our schools open.”

About three-quarters of the 6,200 Souderton Area students are currently in district classes five days a week, with the other quarter receiving full online instruction from the Souderton Area Online Academy.

With the recent upswing in COVID-19 cases, some

people have questioned why the school buildings aren’t being closed, Gallagher said, but said the district falls below the county threshold for closures.

Statistics are being repeated online about incidence and positivity rates, but those are not the actual numbers because the rates given are for zip code areas, which often include more than one municipality, he said.

“You can’t go by zip code. You really have to go by the township boundaries, and that’s what Montgomery County has done this whole time,” Gallagher said.

As of Nov. 11, active COVID-19 cases included four Franconia Elementar y School students, four Oak Ridge Elementary School students, one Indian Crest

Middle School student, one Indian Valley Middle School student, four Souderton Area High School students, and two Indian Crest Middle School staff members, according to information on the school district website.

Montgomery County has done a good job of controlling the pandemic and in working with individual school districts to make decisions that are best for the community, Gallagher said.

The school district can be proud of what it has already done in providing classes during the pandemic, he said.

“We’re doing it and my goal is to continue to adjust, to pivot when we need to,” Gallagher said. “That’s how we’re gonna get through this year.”