Parents, staff say dialogue lacking

Mix of reopening options creating confusion

With school set to reopen Sept. 2 for 2,900 fulltime in-school students, 2,400 in hybrid classes combining in-class and remote learning, and 1,500 full-time remote, the Aug. 24 Pennridge School Board meeting included updates about the plans, along with parents and teachers looking for more answers.

“Planning for this school year was certainly a no-win proposition. As it became clear that we would not have a completely normal opening, there were arguments to be

made about the best path to take. We planned for various options from the beginning and investigated how to do them safely,” Superintendent David Bolton said.

Seventy percent of the families in the district are getting their first choice of the three options offered, he said.

All three options were offered for elementary students, with middle school and high school having two options. At the middle school, the choices were full-time in class and full-time remote; at the high school, the choices were hybrid or full-time remote. Parents at the meeting, however, said many of those who opted for the hybrid option did not receive it.

“The past three months have been filled with us investigating how best to open safely and finding new ways to engage students when they cannot be physically near one another,” Bolton said.

The district’s health and safety plan meets all state mandates and includes recommendations from national, state and local health agencies, he said.

Jim Valletta, president of the Pennridge Education Association, said the employees still have concerns about the plans, however, and want the district to follow all state guidelines.

“The current education and health and safety plan is convoluted, confusing, and places Pennridge teachers in an extremely difficult position. We are being directed to provide educational services in an often crowded environment of mixed and blended classes passing our ability to do any one method well,” he said. “The current plan appears to be a collection of compromises and exceptions to exceptions. We are being asked to implement a novel and incredibly complex scheme with little time to prepare and little specific information and logistics for how it will work.”

Many of the staff are being moved to different school buildings or areas of expertise, he said.

“We want to do our best for students and the community, but we have significant concerns that the administration has promised a complex plan that is difficult to deliver,” Valletta said.

During his president’s report, board President Bill Krause provided statistics of work done by the district in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including additional distribution of computer equipment for students and teachers.

“They’ve added enough devices to offer all hybrid and remote students a device for use at home,” Krause said.

Resident Debbie Biehl said the biggest frustration for parents and students was the lack of communication from the district. Her two sons in high school will be doing hybrid, but like other students, they still didn’t have their schedule, she said.

“I don’t think at this point in time that you being able to tell me what days of the week my kids are going to be in school is asking too much,” Biehl said. “That’s all we’re asking is some communication and we are feeling that we are not getting it.”

Elementary school teacher Kendall Jones said she just received her teaching assignment Aug. 19.

“I have no curriculum materials at this point, and I am switching a grade level. This has not only happened to me, but many other staff members, especially at the elementary buildings,” she said. “I don’t know why we are waiting until the last minute to make decisions on where we are teaching, how we are teaching and even what grade level we are teaching.”

Bolton apologized for the delays in scheduling classes and buses and said more communications from the district will be coming out later in the week.

The delay was “solely because we were trying to meet the needs of families and our staffing resources and pairing them together,” he said.

The district could have set the schedules earlier, but that would have meant that less of the families got their first choices, he said.

In response to there having been questions about blended classes, Bolten clarified what the term means under the plan.

In the elementary and middle schools, remote classes have only students learning remotely, he said.

“Blended means that there are students live in the classroom and students remotely from home live-streaming at the same time and that’s more the model at the high school level just because of the sheer number of permutations of classes,” he said.

The board meeting, which was held as a teleconference and had more than 350 watchers at times, can be viewed on the district’s YouTube channel.

Diversity and inclusion

The Aug. 24 meeting also included the presentation of an online petition signed by more than 2,500 people “to demand an immediate pledge from the Pennridge School District to overhaul and institute a curriculum dedicated to anti-racist education, and the release of a plan about how exactly the district intends to educate students about racism, and uplift and promote the work of diverse scholars, historians and activists.”

The petition was started by Pennridge students Aliyah and Maya Lomax, who are cousins.

“We started this petition to demand action and recognition from the school board and administration that these issues underlined in the petition are occurring and need to be fixed,” Aliyah Lomax said at the meeting. “This issue is not only important to us, but it should be important to everyone. We believe that people aren’t born racist, it’s a learned behavior.”

A draft copy of goals for the year includes “continue education and training for all stakeholders in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Bolton said during his superintendent’s report.

Director of Pupil Services Cheri Derr said 10 different training topics in diversity, equity and inclusion have been offered for district staff since May. There was also a three-hour in person training session, she said. More details will be given at a Sept. 8 board committee meeting, she said. Invitations are being sent out to families and students that have expressed interest in joining the district group working on the issues, she said.

Fall sports

In another matter at the meeting, the board approved fall sports based on the Suburban One League recommended calendar.

“I believe it’s an essential part of a public education to have not just sports, but all extra-curriculars,” board member Joan Cullen said.

While the Pennridge vote allows sports activities this fall, it doesn’t yet answer the question of whether spectators will be allowed, board member Megan Banis-Clemens said. That question will be answered before the competitions begin, she said.