Wissahickon offers hybrid class option for middle, high schools
AMBLER » As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact schools, Wissahickon School District took another step this week toward a more traditional environment.
During Monday night’s school board meeting, the Wissahickon School Board unanimously authorized a revision to the existing teaching and learning plan, providing for hybrid instruction
“I would love to be back in school, and I’m so excited to go back in a month. So hoping all of that goes well.” — Wissahickon High School Senior Matt Fritz
for middle and high school students.
According to Assistant Superintendent Gary Abbamont, parents will have the opportunity to choose either a hybrid or virtual option for their children’s second marking period.
“So this decision ... will be for second quarter, Nov. 9-Jan. 21, and at that time in January we’ll give the parents an option to change that again, but we do want people to know the planning behind this is such that we can’t be making changes during the interim that this is a decision now and that will hold us through second quarter,” Abbamont said.
This change came after the updated planning document was presented during a special work session last month.
School district officials had initia lly approved a teaching and learning plan on July 22 following a 6-3 vote. The policies had accounted for in-person, hybrid and online options.
In August, Superintendent James Crisfield urged board members to opt for a solely virtual model, but his proposal was rejected in a 6-2 vote after a roughly 3.5
“I actually really enjoy virtual school.” — Student Representative Paige Benning
hour special board meeting on Aug. 6.
About a week later, Crisfield addressed the ongoing situation in a digital letter to parents and community members, stressing that students in sixth through 12th grades would be taught only online.
“After carefully examining the latest staffing data yesterday, I had to invoke a contingency strand of the approved plan due to the unique nature of staffing at the secondary level,” Crisfield said in the Aug. 14 letter.
While the revision applied to the first marking period, Crisfield cited
staffing issues due to the fact that “secondary teachers must be certificated in specific subject areas in order to be legally allowed to teach classes, and with more surrounding districts moving to 100 [percent] virtual, we are unable at this time to staff the secondary schools to open as planned.”
There have been 12,240 COVID-19 cases and 840 deaths in Montgomery County since the pandemic began here in early March, according to the county’s COVID-19 resources page.
Most recently, three COVID-19 cases were disclosed within Wissahickon School District last month, ac
cording to a Sept. 18 letter from Crisfield: A student at Lower Gwynedd Elementary School in Ambler attending in-person, a teacher from Stony Creek Elementary School teaching inperson and a Wissahickon High School student taking classes virtually.
No additional cases were reported during Monday night’s meeting, according to School Board Member Zeffy Karagiannakis.
Wissahickon Middle and High schools have been completely virtual since the start of the school year on Aug. 31, and they will remain so until Nov. 8. However, Crisfield assured school board members that the staffing constraints had been addressed and mostly taken care of.
Sixth through 12th graders will have the option for the second marking period to attend classes alternating between in-person and virtual, or continue with virtual learning every day, according to the plan.
“The revised plan below reflects for the period 11/9/20 through the balance of the 2020-21 school year, as long as allowed by county/state health officials,” the plan states.
The main difference is the structuring of classes, according to Abbamont, explaining that the middle school will run eight classes throughout the school day, while the high school will have four classes as part of block scheduling.
“All of our teachers at this point who will be teaching from Nov. 9 for second quarter will be present on site and teaching from their on-site location both to students who are virtually at home as well as those who are present in their room,” Abbamont said.
Additional information regarding “cohorts” and “hybrid groups” for student assignments is forthcoming, according to an Oct. 6 district update.
“Students in WMS and WHS from the same household will be assigned to the same cohort,” the update states. “We are designing our plan to maximize social distancing for our students.”
Additionally, high school students with study hall in the first or last period of the day will have the opportunity to come to school late or leave early if they can secure their own transportation, according to an Oct. 6 district update.