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.

Families in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District will have a choice this fall about whether to send their children into school buildings two days a week or have them learn entirely from home. That is the foundation of a complex plan for school reopening presented at the July 20 board meeting.

The Wallingford-Swarthmore School District plans to open schools for in-person instruction this fall, Superintendent Lisa Palmer wrote in a July 3 email to the school community. “However,” she continued, “we know school must look different.” Palmer went on to discuss the district’s tentative plans, which seek to balance the district’s preference for in-person instruction with concerns about the spread of COVID-19.

School is still in session, but already the board of the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District is thinking about what next year will look like. The district is considering how to implement school entirely in school buildings, entirely from home, and everything in between.

On Thursday, April 2, the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District started distributing free meals to children 18 and younger. Families needing the service were asked to sign up ahead of time on the WSSD website, but administrators were unsure how many to expect. By mid-morning, cars were lined up along Copples Lane outside the school. “I’m surprised at the level of need,” said WSSD Business Administrator Martha Kew. “But I shouldn’t be. The world is different.”

Not long after the coronavirus closed Wallingford-Swarthmore school doors on March 13, families began asking Micah Knapp, president of the Nether Providence Board of Commissioners, about plans for feeding kids with the schools closed. Hundreds of students in its five public schools qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. With school out for the indefinite future and businesses shutting their doors, families are worried. On March 14, Knapp discussed the situation with WSSD superintendent Lisa Palmer.