Hybrid Model a Work in Progress
“It’s a challenge, but they’re doing it.”
Swarthmore-Rutledge School Principal Dr. Angela Tuck
This was Swarthmore-Rutledge School Principal Angela Tuck’s description of teachers addressing lessons to children at home and children in the classroom at the same time. As reports from other district principals at the October 12 school board meeting made clear, her words apply to many aspects of rolling out the hybrid instructional model in which some students are returning to in-person learning two days a week.
Tuck was one of four Wallingford-Swarthmore School District principals who spoke. The meeting itself was hybrid, with some board members and Superintendent Lisa Palmer participating from the Strath Haven Middle School library, while others joined remotely from their homes.
Tuck emphasized the excitement of having children back in the school building. She described students high-fiving one another at a distance and giving self-hugs in the direction of their friends to substitute for actual hugging. WSSD safety rules require everyone to stay at least 6 feet apart and (with rare exceptions) to wear face coverings.
Nether Providence Elementary School Principal Al Heinle sounded emotional as he noted how hard it was to watch first graders at their first ever school lunch sitting far apart from each other at either end of 8-foot tables, all facing the same direction. “It was difficult to see students thinking that this is what lunch is at the elementary school,” he said.
Transportation logistics are also challenging, Heinle reported. Some kids walked or rode bikes to school rather than ride the school bus. Many were driven to school and picked up in cars. On the first day K-5 students were back, Heinle witnessed “probably the largest car line I’ve ever seen at NPE.” He said adjustments have been made to smooth the process.
“So far everything has been going well,” Heinle summarized. “Not perfect. This is still a work in progress.”
Staffing and Symptom Tracking
Strath Haven Middle School Principal George King reported that middle school teachers had been apprehensive about in-person instruction, but felt more confident by the end of the first day. He expressed concerns about staffing. “We’re very thin,” he said, adding that he worries about finding replacements if teachers get sick.
Strath Haven High School Principal Greg Hilden shares that concern. On the first day of in-person instruction he was missing three staff. He was able to fill those positions internally, but “contracted substitutes are depleted this year,” he explained later by email. “Many have been hired to fill positions open for a variety of reasons.”
Hilden reported problems with families not completing mandatory online symptom trackers before sending their children to school. Of 426 high school students expected in school on the first day of hybrid learning, only 196 had completed the tracker. He said staff spent much of the day identifying students who had not completed it and calling them to the nurse’s office to have their symptoms checked and registered. “It takes quite a bit of time, and today we weren’t able to get through all the children,” he said.
Board member Jennifer Lentz encouraged families to “be diligent with the symptom tracker.”
Several parents reached after the meeting said they had filled out the tracker, but that their responses had not registered, resulting in their children being called out of class. Steph Daemon said she had filled out the tracker “as soon as the email came through.”
Parent Dara Kusic, who experienced the same problem, reported that responses to the tracker are time-stamped two hours earlier than families were filling them out — presumably because the software uses the software company’s local time. The first notification for parents comes at midnight, so if they fill it out immediately, it may not register as having been completed for the coming day. “Wait until after 2 a.m. to fill [the tracker] out until they fix the issue,” she advises.
Palmer said at the meeting that the first notification comes at midnight to accommodate parents who leave for work in the middle of the night. She also said the district is considering sending the notifications by text rather than by email.
COVID Hits Sports Team
Board President David Grande asked Hilden to comment on a recent positive COVID-19 test in a member of a high school sports team. “I want to understand what happens when we find out” that a student or staff member has tested positive, he said.
Hilden reported that the high school may learn of a positive COVID test either directly from a staff member or the family of an affected student, or from the Chester County Department of Health. “More often that not, it is the person who has tested positive, or who has been around someone who has tested positive, that has reached out to us first,” he said.
The first thing the school does when hearing from a COVID-positive individual is to contact the Chester County Health Department, Hilden reported. The health department then confirms the case and provides guidance to the school. In this case, the department recommended sending a letter to each member of the team informing them of the positive test. The school supplemented the letter with phone calls to each team member’s family, Hilden said.
Grande noted that hearing directly from members of the school community who test positive for COVID-19 will be important in being able to keep school buildings open. “An enormous thank you to the family who contacted the district,” he said.
The next board meeting will be Monday, October 26, at 7 p.m. To watch it live or afterwards, go to WSSD’s YouTube Channel.
Members of the public may also now attend the meetings in-person in the Strath Haven Middle School library. They must adhere to all district safety procedures, including wearing a mask and staying 6 feet apart.
