Citing Rising Risk, Board Votes to Keep Buildings Shut for Now

All-virtual school until October.

That recommendation from Wallingford-Swarthmore School Superintendent Lisa Palmer was accepted by the school board at a special meeting on Monday night. The vote was 7-1, with Chapin Cimino abstaining. Board member Jennifer Lentz voted against the proposal.

Three weeks earlier, on July 20, the board voted to give families the option of attending school two days a week (“the cohort model”) or having all virtual instruction (“the online academy”). 73% of high school students and 67% of middle and elementary school students had opted to return to school buildings when the school year begins on August 31.

But COVID-19 numbers have increased in Delaware County since July. 

Palmer said she has been meeting regularly with other local superintendents, Delaware County officials, Chester County Health Department officials, and other medical professionals. “Delaware County remains one of the areas [in the state] with the highest positivity rates,” she said.

Spikes in coronavirus infections after holiday weekends were also a concern she said, citing the upcoming Labor Day holiday. 

“It is our hope that switching to all-virtual education for one month will allow for any potential infections brought into our community from holiday travel to lessen before bringing groups of students and educators into our schools,” Palmer said. “We believe the worst scenario would be to open the schools only to close them a few days later because of an outbreak.”

She added, “We remain committed to opening our schools to in-person instruction as soon as we are safely able to do so.”

Experts Weigh In

Dr. David Rubin, a professor of pediatrics and director of the PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, attended the Zoom meeting to offer a medical perspective. PolicyLab has been advising commonwealth leaders and others. 

Rubin noted that the coronavirus spreads easily in close, crowded spaces. “We’ve watched this in nursing homes,” he said. “We’ve watched this in meat packing and poultry farms.” People returning from vacations were the third chapter in the story of rapid spread, he said. “School is going to be chapter four,” he predicted.

While less likely than adults to fall ill from the virus, Rubin noted that children can spread it. He cited problems with school reopening in Israel and Georgia, which both reversed course after outbreaks. He spoke of mistakes the United States made in the spring, when “we saw some evidence of decline or stabilization and we took that to mean we could race” toward reopening businesses. 

“This is about finding your window to open safely, and also to sustain your success,” Rubin said. He cautioned that closing down rapidly after an outbreak would be worse than waiting to open.

Spikes in cases after Memorial Day and July Fourth make him worry about bringing people into schools after Labor Day, he said. “It’s going to get really dicey once you start seeing COVID-positive kids in the classroom.”

Board president David Grande asked Rubin whether athletics should be off the table. Rubin proposed considering whether sports were played outside or indoors, and whether they were high or low contact. This could help schools decide how to provide opportunities for kids to train, compete, and see one another. “A child playing tennis is not a kid in a classroom,” he said.

The Percentages

Much of the night’s conversation concerned positivity rates and what conclusions to draw from them. 

P.J. Brennan, Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, was in attendance. He noted that the positivity rate in Delaware County had been about 6.5% at the beginning of August before falling about a point. Recent guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of Education allows schools to reopen for partial in-person instruction if the seven-day positivity rate in their county is between 5 and 10%, or if their county sees between 10 and 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period.

But Brennan and Rubin cautioned that recent data is uncertain and official guidance may be optimistic.

“If you waited till three or even two percent, you’re going to do better,” Rubin said. He noted that New York City currently has a positivity rate of about 1%. “That gives them so many more options.”

Delaware County is currently seeing 70-80 new cases per 100,000 people, Rubin noted. He believes an average of 10 new cases per 100,000 would make school reopening substantially safer.

Noting variation across the county, Grande asked if school district COVID statistics could be separated from county numbers.

Rubin said the Chester County Department of Health (which monitors Delaware County) could likely provide information by zip code. 

“The numbers in your part of the county are certainly lower than in some of the townships that border Philadelphia,” Brennan said. But, Rubin noted, people move across municipal lines, including members of WSSD families who work outside the district. 

Board member Cimino wondered whether the board’s decision could be postponed until after zip code data was reviewed. Grande said he believed the board had to decide on a plan that night to give families time to prepare.

Ultimately, Cimino abstained from voting on the new reopening plan. “I don’t think we have the data that we need,” she said.

The Board Weighs In

“I want all who are here tonight, and who are listening, to remember that we are talking about people,” said board member Kelly Wachtman. “We aren’t talking about widgets.”

She noted that children are not the only people affected by the reopening decision. Teachers, staff, and administrators would also be in school buildings, and children return home to potentially vulnerable families.

“I see profound loss on both sides,” said board member Jennifer Lentz. Losses from coronavirus are measurable, she observed, unlike losses caused by children not being in schools. “Knowing [that those losses are] out there, and having no idea what the degree is, really concerns me when we are making such a huge decision.” 

Lentz noted that state guidance allows schools with Delaware County’s positivity rate to reopen. Furthermore, she emphasized that the current rate of about 5% is at the low end of what the state has deemed permissible. She pointed out that Swarthmore, Rose Valley, and Rutledge have “the absolute lowest positivity rate in the entire county.”

“I like to listen to people who know a lot more than me,” board member Damon Orsetti said, referring to Rubin and Brennan. “I know the rigor behind all the science they look at.”

“Our rates are not even close to what they’ve been in countries that have been successful in opening their schools,” Grande said, explaining his vote to delay in-person instruction. 

But, he said, the board is prepared to reassess the situation quickly. He predicted that the board might bring back some populations before others. Special-needs students and younger students, for instance, are generally harmed more than others by virtual learning, so might return earlier.

The Community Weighs In

Comments from community members, in the form of transcribed telephone messages, ranged from appreciation to rage. 

“There is no perfect solution,” one parent said. “But we need our kids in schools.”

“Sitting in a room with a group of people for a length of time is not the way to go,” said another. “Look at what we’re seeing in the South.”

A third called the proposal to go all-virtual “unscientific panic porn,” noting that no children in Pennsylvania have died from COVID-19. If the board chose the remote option, he said, “We will vote you out of office.”

The Swarthmorean spoke to several parents who had counted on their children learning in-person in the fall. 

One mother, who asked not to be named because of her work situation, noticed a worrying decline in her son’s mental health last spring. She attributed this to the isolation of online learning. “He just couldn’t continue like that,” she said. Her other son has an Individualized Education Program (IEP). She said she had yet to hear how the district will address his needs. She was “very disappointed in the lack of clarity around most things, but especially around special education.”

A single mother with kids going into fourth and sixth grades, Jennifer Costello said last week that she had “no choice” but to send her kids back to school. She can’t afford full-time childcare. After the meeting, she said she hoped the board didn’t keep pushing reopening off further and further. “All I can do now is plan for where my kids go,” she said.

Lysa Rieger’s daughters are going into fifth and ninth grades. She had planned to send them back to school to see “live humans” and because she trusted the safety protocols — though she was not planning to have them ride the bus. After the meeting, Rieger, who teaches math at Strath Haven High School, was philosophical. “I’m sad not to get to see my students in person,” she said. But, she conceded, “I think it’s the right decision with the current metrics.”

To watch this or any other school board meeting, go to WSSD’s YouTube channel.