Board backs off from full reopening
Final vote on reopening plan set for July 28
BOYERTOWN » The Boyertown Area School Board has backed off its stated preference for a full, inperson return to school this fall.
The latest development occurred during a marathon four-hour meeting on July 21, the first hour of which was spent listening to members of the public, some of whom had sharp words for certain board members.
After the public had its say, Superintendent Dana Bedden had his, outlining the reasons why changing school reopening plans at this date would be impossible and less safe.
Chief among them is safety.
Bedden said social distancing and masks are currently the best way to prevent the spread of coronavirus and a full in-person return to school puts teachers, staff, students and all their families at risk of spreading the disease.
He also pointed out that for five weeks, the board was updated on the development of the “scaffolding” plan the administration has recommended, and asked to provide feedback or objections, but he received few substantive responses and certainly nothing to indicate board members preferred a full re-open.
“We were never asked to provide the answer to the question ‘what do we look like with a full open?’” said Bedden. The July 14 meeting “was the first time we heard it.”
“We viewed the July 14 meeting as review and dialog about the scaffolding plan, and to make modifications to the plan in preparation for the vote at the July 28 meeting,” he said.
But when five board members — James Brophy, Roger Updegrove, Ruth Dierolf, Christine Neiman and Brian Hemingway — indicated at
the July 14 meeting that they preferred a full opening with all students and teachers back in school, Bedden brought that back to the administration for more work.
“It literally put us back to square one,” Bedden said.
What the administration found is it would over-extend the custodial staff; to maintain social distancing, lunch would begin at 10:30 in the morning; less space would be available to isolate anyone in any building identified as having COVID-19 and that fewer teachers would be available to fill in for an ill colleague given the shortage and inadvisability of using outside subs.
Added to this was the overwhelming concern of the teachers.
About 80 percent of the staff responded to a union survey put out after the July 14 meeting, which was watched by 78 percent of the 256 who responded.
It found 77 percent are “very concerned” about
COVID-19 safety and only 8.6 percent supported the full return favored by the board majority at the July 14 meeting.
And 45 percent either “support or strongly support” the administration’s hybrid re-opening proposal. He said that result raised concerns that if the board stuck with the full re-open, many teachers might choose not to return.
And it wasn’t just the teachers who had concerns. Bedden said “we had 200 referrals for the virtual program after last week’s meeting.”
Ultimately, Bedden told the board “we can’t do a full re-opening. We believe we need to drill down deeper with our hybrid plan,” he said.
Brophy, who a week ago had told Bedden he did not want to lose any time by having the administration continue down a path the majority does not support, said he had only asked about the fulltime return to get better answers from Bedden.
“All we ever asked for was information on a full re-opening,” said Dierolf. “It’s healthy to have a discussion, not just bring materials.”
“My game plan is to get you guys to the right answer and I didn’t feel you were there last week,” Brophy said. “We’re supposed to be working together to get to the best solution. If we don’t challenge the common thinking, we’re never going to get anywhere.”
He added “the reason we were going for that is to see how much safer the hybrid is than full school because I don’t see a whole lot of difference.”
Board member Lisa Hogan said Bedden had “made if clear that a full opening would not be safe and it is not the path we should take.”
Bedden replied that “every study says that going back again full time is the least safe.”
Brophy also pushed back on Bedden’s observation that few on the board had replied to his updates on the development of the hybrid plan. “If you’re only getting one or two questions back, that should be a red flag to you that we’re not sure what we should do.”
Nevertheless, said Brophy, “we can’t get a plan together at this time to open the schools. “We have to go forward with the scaffolding plan.”
Dierolf said in the wake of the July 14 meeting, “there were a lot of accusations made from the community and I received some really hateful emails.”
“We all have to work together, but we don’t all have to think alike,” she said. “We can agree to disagree and still be civil.”
But civility was occasionally absent in the comments the board received from members of the public for the first hour of the meeting.
For example, Washington Township resident Christian Fowkes, who has been working on a task force in a neighboring school district that helped craft a hybrid plan, dubbed the five Boyertown board members who had indicated support for a full reopening “the COVID Five,” said they had “decided to play Russian roulette with our children, except with added ammunition.”
Stephanie Deterick told those five to “get over yourselves and your ego and put the best interests of the students first.”
Andrew Heisman of New Hanover said he has four children in the district and told teh board
“you do not get to gamble with our kids’ lives.”
Katrina Gregory talked about the emotion impact the death of a favorite teacher could have on a child — a tragedy made more likely by a full reopening.
“No one should have to mourn the preventable loss of a mentor,” she said adding “students will spread this virus like wildfire.”
Jon Emeigh, who has been a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry for 30 years, observed “we’ve barely studied the effects of COVID on children. Even in the nonsymptom cases, there is the potential for longterm effects.”
“This is a new disease,” said Emeigh. “It’s been around for less than a year and the data changes on it every day. Taking on risks you don’t have to take on is not courage.”
“Students will spread this virus like wildfire.” — Katrina Gregory, Boyertown parent