Unionville -Chadds Ford School Board directors Monday night revised the district’s reopening plan. Instead of opening with a hybrid model, as the board approved on Aug. 3, the new school year will only open with online instruction on Sept. 8. The vote was a unanimous 9-0.
The move came as a result of a recommendation from the Chester County Health Department. Superintendent of Schools John Sanville alerted the community to the possibility of the change last Friday when he sent a message saying he had received the new recommendation the night before.
He said during the Aug. 17 work session that, based on conversations with the district’s attorneys and insurance company, the Health Department’s recommendation was more than just a guideline because the district’s potential liability “is considerable, should we ignore the recommendation from the Chester County Health Department.”
“In reality, it’s a mandate,” he said. “Now we’re left with the task of starting over again as to how we’re going to open schools in person. I’m hopeful we’re going to be able to do that by Oct. 9.”
The distant learning will continue through Oct. 9 when it will be reevaluated. The administration is working on a new health and safety plan that will be presented for discussion in September and would be ready in October, Sanville added.
Monday night’s vote came after a long discussion among board members and comments from parents who phoned into the meeting. The comments from residents were not unanimous. Some said they wanted schools to reopen in person while others said the online approach was safer.
One resident, Carmen DiMario, of Birmingham Township, said the Health Department’s guidelines were just that, guidelines, not law, and that the school board should make its own decisions based on what most of the parents have said they want, a return to five-day in-person school.
Brian Lamb, from Pennsbury Township, said the Health department’s recommendations are “self-contradicting, baseless and unjustified” because the incident rates and positive tests of the virus are less than the department’s stated thresholds.
“The threshold given by the Health Department to go 100 percent virtual is an incident rate of 80, and we’re at 36, and PCR Test positivity is 10 percent, and we’re currently at 3 [percent]. So, starting in a virtual-only mode is in direct contradiction to the department’s own criteria.”
Still another person, Brian Dougherty, of West Marlborough, said those who want schools to open in person “don’t take this seriously, understand the real risks, and entertain the belief that the global pandemic is a hoax. This is not a hoax. And if you haven’t met someone who’s been infected, hospitalized or died, you’re simply lucky.”
Several school board directors, such as Board President Jeff Hellrung, and member Joh Murphy, said they were dismayed by the Health Department’s recommendation and that the department had pulled the rug out from under the board. Sanville made the same comment earlier in the meeting.
Hellrung also said that despite the change, people should do whatever it takes to get the schools to properly reopen in-person by continuing to maintain social distancing, wash their hands, and wear masks.
If the Oct. 9 reevaluation shows schools can reopen fully, that would likely happen on Oct. 13.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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