Upper Dublin High School & Fort Washington Elementary Students Will Soon Return In-Person

UPPER DUBLIN, PA — Fort Washington Elementary School students are poised to return to in-person learning at the beginning of next week while local high schoolers are not expected to return to brick-and-mortar classrooms until Sept. 27, the Upper Dublin School District announced late last week.

The elementary school and Upper Dublin High School sustained significant damage due to the recent storms tied to Hurricane Ida, and students in those two schools have been learning virtually while remediation crews work to repair damage done by tornado winds and heavy flooding.

Ida brought a path of destruction throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania Sept. 1, with Upper Dublin Township being one of the communities hit particularly hard. The township and police department were rendered unusable after a tornado ripped the roof off the municipal complex, forcing municipal government offices and police to relocate elsewhere in the township.

Upper Dublin High School and Fort Washington Elementary were also on the list of structures that were greatly affected in the area.

School District Superintendent Steven Yanni has been updating the school community with regular, daily updates on the work being done to remediate both buildings, and late last week, he sent out an update discussing moving forward.

According to the district information, Upper Dublin High School students will continue learning virtually through Sept. 24, with a total of 11 virtual instruction days having marked the beginning of the 2021-22 school year thus far.

The Sept. 10 update says that resuming in-person instruction at the high school is contingent upon the completion of the installation of air handling equipment to provide proper ventilation throughout the building.

For Washington Elementary School sustained damage to many of its classrooms from Hurricane Ida. The recent community update says that recovery is expected to take many months, and after weighing a number of different options for the start of school, the district opted to assign grade levels to the other elementary schools in the district.

The district said that by using all available space in the three other elementary schools – Jarrettown Elementary, Maple Glen Elementary and Thomas Fitzwater Elementary – Fort Washington students would be able to have in-person instruction and the district would be able to remain in compliance with its health and safety plan.

Fort Washington Elementary students who receive special services, such as special education and occupational therapy, will continue to receive those services in their new, temporary schools, according to the district.

According to an information sheet provided by the district, Fort Washington Elementary students in kindergarten through first grade will be housed at Jarrettown, those in grades two through three will be placed at Maple Glen and fourth and fifth graders will be located at Thomas Fitzwater. Autism support students from Fort Washington would be receiving schooling at Thomas Fitzwater.

Just recently, President Joe Biden declared a major disaster declaration in parts of Pennsylvania, making federal aid available to residents in certain communities that were hit hard by the storms.

Previously, Gov. Tom Wolf toured some of those damaged communities. Upper Dublin was one of those towns he stopped at during his visit to Southeastern Pennsylvania.