The East Pennsboro Area School District’s Board approved a phase-driven back-to-school plan at its in-person board meeting Tuesday night that left many community members, students and staff with questions. Sixty-five to be exact — and it’s unclear what phase will be in place come Aug. 25.
A nearly three-hour discussion brought questions that ranged from required masks and social distancing on buses to childcare and loaner-technology for students. District administrators let anyone who had a comment or complaint be heard at the meeting.
“With the changes in guidelines that come, we have to be very fluid, and this is a very difficult situation for all of us,” Superintendent Donna Dunar said. “What we have to be concerned about is the health and safety and welfare of everyone, and that is at the forefront of our decision-making process.”
The return to school plan outlines three phases of school instruction: the red phase, which is completely online; the yellow phase, which offers in-person instruction 2 days a week; and green phase, which allows for in-person instruction five days a week.
Administrators say they expect to open under the yellow phase, though that could change depending on the state of coronavirus and new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that are set to be announced later this week. School board members urged for the green phase for reopening to limit remote instruction as much as possible.
Dunar said the administration chose to start in the yellow phase in order to be as careful and safe as possible with the district’s reopening.
If the district starts in yellow, that would mean half of the students in each grade would come to school Monday and Wednesday, while the other half of the grade would come to school Tuesday and Thursday. Both groups would participate in remote learning on Friday, as well as the days they are not physically in class.
Under the green phase, all students would return to in-person classes five days a week and schools would space out students in classrooms by limiting group or “pod” seating.
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Going red would mean at-home, remote instruction for all students. Food drops and student support services would still be available for students.
This meeting was emotional and left a lot of questions unanswered.
“It’s a lot of mourning. I mourn what education used to be, it’s no longer that. I mourn what my children experienced in education, it’s no longer that. And my children mourn those relationships with teachers, with friends, with family, because it is no longer that,” board member Denise Pearsons said. “There is no perfect plan and there is no right answer because we can’t change those things. All we can do is move forward with the best plan to provide the safest education for our students.”
East Pennsboro is one of many districts in the area that announced plans to return to in-person classes in the fall. Central Dauphin School District’s board recently approved its plan to return to in-person instruction, as well as Susquehanna Township and New Cumberland. Other districts have released plans to go back to the classrooms though they are still awaiting board approval. Most districts are set to vote on back-to-school guidelines in the next few weeks.
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