Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Officials talk challenges of opening schools
Administrators say they’re not getting support
It’s simply something Dr. James Scanlon isn’t equipped to do.
The West Chester School District superintendent, speaking during a state Senate Majority Policy Committee workshop Tuesday, said he and his fellow school leaders across Pennsylvania are being asked to make medical decisions despite not having medical backgrounds.
“The only medical training I have had is first aid,” he said.
He’s relying on state and federal guidance that keeps changing, that sometimes is contradictory. The decisions he and his school board make are fracturing the community.
Superintendents and school boards are on the hot seat right now.
In just a few weeks, a new school year will begin. It will be unlike any before it.
The last school year ended virtually, with the COVID-19 pandemic leading to a statewide closure of school buildings that stretched from mid-March to the
final day of school.
Local school officials have been left with the unenviable task of figuring out what school will look like moving forward. They’re trying to figure out how to educate students amid an ongoing pandemic. And it’s far from easy. “We’re all working at a furious pace to find a way to safely open our schools next month,” Scanlon said.
Scanlon was one of nine panel members to take part in Tuesday’s workshop, which was arranged at the request of state Sen. Tom Killion, a Republican who represents parts of Chester and Delaware counties, to get feedback on the hurdles school districts are facing in attempting to reopen.
The session was held at Bayard Rustin High School in the West Chester School District and streamed live on the internet.
Lack of guidance
Scanlon shared a list of different concerns he has been facing, saying the most frustrating has been a lack of clear guidance from state and federal officials.
“We’re not getting a lot of support,” he said. “We’ve been largely on our own.”
Guidance has been general, lacking the specificity needed to craft successful reopening plans, Scanlon said. That has put a lot of pressure on local school leaders, whose every move is met with criticism from one corner or another.
“We’re being forced to defend the castle against those who choose to storm it,” he said, explaining that district officials have spent a large amount of time defending themselves from attacks by community members on social media.
Scanlon said that criticism should be directed elsewhere, that local school officials have been put in impossible circumstances.
“What is being asked of school districts is extreme and it’s unrealistic,” he said.
Another key concern shared by Scanlon is the financial impact COVID-19 will have on schools, saying the added cost of things like cleaning and personal protective supplies coupled with expected losses in local revenues will be devastating.
“School districts will go bankrupt paying for this,” he said.