Survey: Parents want kids in class

Schools don’t have space for full return

LOWER POTTSGROVE » The majority of Pottsgrove families want their children to return to in-classroom learning, according to a district-wide survey.

The Pottsgrove School Board also learned Tuesday night that the rate of COVID-19 cases in the three townships that comprise the district is so low, state guidelines would allow full fiveday classroom instruction, but only if the buildings had enough space to accommodate six-feet social distancing.

Unfortunately, they cannot, Superintendent William Shirk told the board.

Instead, the district is moving ahead with its plans to allow those who want to return to do so in a “blended” or “hybrid” model in November.

The school board is scheduled to vote Nov. 10 on whether it’s safe to institute the hybrid model whereby students would undertake in-class instruction

for two days a week, and virtual online instruction the other three days.

Returning students would be divided into two cohorts that would alternate their days in class in order to keep numbers low.

Families opting to keep their students home would continue to receive online instruction five days a week, under the district’s plan.

Preparations for the return of students, teachers and staff are nearing completion, Shirk said, with ultraviolet light devices to kill bacteria among the last pieces of the puzzle.

Since March 14, Montgomery County has seen a total of 12,601 positive tests for the coronavirus according to a chart Shirk shared with the board. In the district, that breaks down to 99 positives in Lower Pottsgrove; 53 positives in Upper Pottsgrove and 26 positives in West Pottsgrove.

There has been only one death due to the virus in the district, and that occurred in Upper Pottsgrove and the patient was 84, according to county statistics.

More recently, figures for the week ending Oct. 1 showed a rate of 1.64 positive cases for every 10,000 residents in Lower Pottsgrove; 3.64 cases per 10,000 residents in Upper Pottsgrove and zero in West Pottsgrove.

Shirk said in the last three weeks, there have been no new COVID-19 cases in Lower or West Pottsgrove, but three new cases in Upper Pottsgrove.

District-wide, that works out to a rate of 1.82 positives for every 10,000 residents for the week ending Oct. 1. The week before that had a rate of 2.77 per 10,000.

The Department of Education considers a rate of 5 to 10 percent positivity to be “moderate” and recommends online or hybrid instruction. A rate of 5 percent or less to be “low” and permits “full, in-person” teaching.

But since social distancing cannot be maintained if all students return to class, Pottsgrove is moving ahead with its plans for hybrid, with sneeze guards for teachers, floor markers, temperature checks and cleaning and health protocols in place.

Pottsgrove High School Principal William Ziegler told the board that once all precautions are in place, the school plans to conduct “virtual tours” of the buildings to familiarize new students and to educate returning students about what has changed.

For many parents, the students cannot return soon enough.

Survey results for roughly 75 percent of the district’s students show for grades K-5, about 70 percent intend to send their students back to class.

That number drops off by 10 or more percentage points for the middle school grades and varies at the high school level with a high of 69 percent for sophomores and 53 percent for freshmen.

Parent Keith Mowery urged the board to instead offer two different options, five-day in-person learning and all-virtual. “Sitting in front of a computer screen for hours isnot what’s best for education,” Mowery said.

“I have three kids and virtual is killing them,” said parent Lisa Futchko. “My kids need to be back in school. It can be done.”

Parent Kelly Reighard agreed, calling the virtual program “our virtual nightmare. I have never seen my son struggle so much.”

She said while her son’s teacher “has been a saint through all of this,” the virtual program suffers from constant computer issues, kids not muting their mikes and too many distractions. “My son’s not getting an education,” Reighard said.