Superintendent to Retire, Board Hears Options for More In-Person Learning at High School
Lisa Palmer
Lisa Palmer, Wallingford-Swarthmore School District superintendent, will retire at the end of June, board president David Grande announced at the December 14 school board meeting. A December 9 email from Palmer to the school community cited a health scare earlier this year as the reason.
The board has contracted with Judith Wilson, an educational consultant and former long-time superintendent, to conduct the search for Palmer’s replacement. The district will pay $14,500 for Wilson’s services, which run from December through June.
A public comment from Jayatri Das on behalf of 103 district residents called on the board to choose a superintendent with proven experience in equity and anti-racism education. In a voicemail message — transcribed and read aloud because the meeting was held remotely — Das asserted, “Events over the past few years in our district demonstrate the urgency of choosing a leader who can transform our schools” by putting equity and opportunity for all students at the center of district activities.
The district’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee will be consulted as part of the hiring process, Grande stated. Of Das’s comment, he said, “I share a lot of the sentiments.”
Three Imperfect Plans
Strath Haven High School administrators presented drafts of three plans to increase the amount of in-person learning for high school students choosing hybrid instruction. At multiple board meetings this fall, many parents and some board members expressed frustration that high school students receive only two half-days of in-person instruction each week. Middle and elementary school students in the hybrid model receive two full days.
Under the high school’s current hybrid plan, students attend school in-person one morning and one afternoon each week. Class periods are 80 minutes long when there are students in the building; they last for 60 minutes when everyone is on Zoom.
High-school principal Greg Hilden explained at the November 9 board meeting that block scheduling is a major impediment to longer in-person days. Unlike most neighboring high schools, Strath Haven organizes its daily schedule in four long blocks, plus an optional fifth block at the end of the day for music ensembles and other extracurricular activities. Third block is longer than the others to accommodate staggered lunch periods. Getting students in and out of the cafeteria for lunch while maintaining social distance — and with extra time for enhanced cleaning — would make third-block classes disproportionately long.
Option 1: No lunch
One proposed plan eliminates lunch. School would run from 7:35 a.m. to 12:24 p.m. with 70-minute blocks and no lunch break. All fifth-block activities would be virtual.
Downsides of this option include the length of time without break or food and the plan’s incompatibility with schedules of vocational technical-education students, who receive some instruction off-site.
Hilden noted that some schools using a similar model have a 10- to 15-minute snack break in the middle of the day. But this would mean students eating unmasked in their classrooms, facing a teacher.
Option 2: Study hall
The second option contains two full in-person days each week, with 75-minute instructional blocks, and includes lunch. Each third-block lunch period would be divided in two, with half the students eating in the cafeteria while the others attend a 25-minute study hall elsewhere in the building.
One obstacle to this plan is its requirement for extra staff to supervise study halls. Additionally, the school can only implement this option if at least 240 students continue to opt for online-only instruction, which might require suspending families’ ability to switch from the district’s Online Academy to the hybrid model at will.
Two board members suggested that meeting the threshold is unlikely to be an obstacle to implementing the study hall option. Board member Marylin Huff noted that enrollment in the Online Academy is robust. Board member Jen Lentz suggested that discontinuing families’ ability to switch models might not pose a problem, since families now have had 5 months to settle on the instructional mode that works best for them.
Option 3: Four half days
The third option brings students into the building every day except Wednesday, either in the morning or the afternoon, for two 70-minute blocks. Instruction in the other two blocks each day would be on Zoom.
This option decreases instructional time slightly, but offers more consistency. “This gives you the opportunity to be in school, in a routine, four days a week,” Hilden noted. Fifth-block activities could be held in-person. One drawback would be additional bus trips, with a tight window for cleaning between runs.
Surveying Families
Hilden said that an October 30 survey attempted to learn more about high-school families’ preferences and the reasons for their enrollment decisions and what options they might prefer.
In the survey, approximately 72% of families with students enrolled in the Online Academy cited safety concerns as the reason for their choice. About 14% said their student preferred virtual learning, with about 5% giving the lack of a full-day option as the reason.
The survey also asked whether Online Academy families would switch to the hybrid model if the school could offer two full days of in-person instruction. Only about 17% said they would.
Hybrid-model families were asked if they would switch to fully remote if the half days were extended to full days. Only about 5% said they would switch.
Most Students Are on Zoom
Hilden noted that more and more of the high school’s approximately 1,230 students are opting for all-virtual learning. On October 7, 285 students were enrolled in the Online Academy. By November 25, that number had risen to 465. On December 11, it hit 543. Families changing options generally give rising COVID-19 case numbers as their reason.
At the same time, the percentage of students enrolled in the hybrid model who actually attend in-person school is down. The percentage ranged from 44% to 58% on different days during the week of December 7.
“When you walk the halls and look in the classroom, you may see between two and five students,” Hilden said of the many classrooms that can accommodate 15 students with 6-foot distancing. “The high school is not the vibrant place that it usually is.”
Hilden said that consultation with staff and families is the next step in deciding which new model, if any, to adopt — assuming COVID-19 numbers permit a return to in-person instruction in 2021. Since December 14, all students have been learning virtually because of the number of cases in the building.
Grande said he hopes at the board’s January 11 meeting to consider a specific proposal for potential implementation when the second semester begins on January 25.
Giving Non-Sports Activities Their Due
“We have spent a great deal of time talking about athletics,” Superintendent Palmer said, acknowledging parent complaints at recent board meetings that arts and other non-sports activities have been getting short shrift from the board. She explained that decisions about COVID-19 safety in relation to athletics are the purview of the board, whereas the administration makes decisions about other activities.
String orchestra rehearsal at Strath Haven Middle School, masked and distanced. Photo: Deirdre Abrahamsson
District Music Department Chair Henry Pearlberg offered an overview of the many music programs the district has run this fall, including the high school marching band and the middle school string orchestra. He said over 70 students attended a recent virtual interest meeting for the upcoming middle school production of “Beauty and the Beast,” and that the high school will stage both “Oedipus Rex” and a Stephen Sondheim musical this spring, likely outdoors.
Pearlberg also showed specialized masks designed for singers and wind-instrument players that the district is considering purchasing. His department has been consulting with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia staff about distancing recommendations (20 feet while masked) and time limits (30 minutes) for music rehearsals.
Hilden and Middle School Principal George King reported that student council, Hi-Q, science olympiad, robotics, and dozens of other clubs have been meeting — virtually — all year, on asynchronous Wednesdays.
The next board meeting will be Monday, January 11, at 7 p.m. To watch it live or afterwards, go to WSSD’s YouTube Channel: swat.ink/wssd-youtube.
