Pennsbury Sets Fall Plans: Virtual Start For Most Students

FALLSINGTON, PA — A proposed hybrid model that would split students in the Pennsbury School District into groups was itself cut into to pieces during a marathon school board meeting Thursday night. Board members tangled for more than four hours over the challenges students and teachers will face in the fall.

First, the board considered the hybrid plan recommended by the administration. Under that plan, the school year would start with virtual classes on Sept. 8. The hybrid aspect — in which different groups of students would alternate virtual and in-person instruction — would begin as early as Oct. 5, depending on the status of the coronations outbreak.

The board rejected the administration's recommendation, as several members raised concerns over a delayed start to in-person learning and the status of students with learning disabilities.

Instead of one vote, the issue was cut into two.

In separate motions, the board ultimately approved to start the school year with virtual instruction on Sept. 8 and set an Oct. 5 target start date for students to return to classes in a yet-to-be-finalized hybrid model.

In those respects, the motions were identical to the measures the administration recommended.

However, the school board departed from that recommendation when it came to students with disabilities or handicaps, including those who learn with individualized education plans or accommodations provided under Pennsylvania code. Families of those students will have the option to start in-school instruction on Sept. 8.

It could mean as many as 3,300 students —about a third of the district's enrollees— showing up to the first day.

During discussion on the motion, board member Joshua Waldorf said he was concerned that bringing that many students back to school is "setting ourselves up for failure."

In response, board member Chip Taylor estimated that only half of those 3,300 students would choose to return in September. He added that he was concerned about prolonging virtual instruction because students with disabilities or handicaps are missing the one-on-one resources they would otherwise be entitled to in a school setting.

The board committed to making adjustments to the hybrid plan in the coming weeks, but they also discussed the difficulty inherent in planning for a future riddled with unknowns.

"Two themes continue to emerge: The first is this concept of uncertainty," Superintendent William Gretzula said as he described the administration's efforts to create a back-to-school plan for the fall.

"We're not sure the symptoms in smaller children," he continued. "We're not sure of the ability of those smaller children to spread it to each other or to adults or transmission in households."

The second variable is the overall spread of coronavirus Bucks County — which is moving "in the wrong direction for the time being," Gretzula said.

Bucks County averaged 44 daily cases of COVID-19 over the past three days this week, adding 131 additional cases to its total. However, 54 cases were delayed reports no longer considered infectious, according to the health department.

The county health department noted that "hospitalizations remain low" for coronavirus, adding that "younger people account for a larger share of the new infections."

Read also:

• Pennsbury Studying Online, Hybrid Reopening Plans
• New Hope–Solebury Schools Plan For 'Total Reopen' September 1
• Central Bucks To Offer 5-Day, In-Person Option For Elementary
• Who's Reopening, Who's Not: See Fall School Plans For Philly Area