Last week, during a special meeting on August 12th, 2020, of the North Schuylkill School Board, the district approved a phased reopening health and safety plan.
The full plan can be viewed at:
http://www.northschuylkill.net/covid/Health%20and%20Safety%20Plan.pdf
The board unanimously approved the plan.
The plan originally allowed children and families to chose to between a "full send" back to school where students returned to class 5 days a week or chose virtual learning 5 days a week from home.
After Governor Wolf made his recommendations in regards to county COVID-19 statistics, the district changed their "full send" plan to a hybrid learning approach.
Students who chose to use the hybrid plan with the last name starting with A through L will attend school Monday and Tuesday and work from home virtually the remaining three days.
Students M through Z will work virtually from home Monday through Wednesday and attend in-school on Thursdays and Fridays.
North Schuylkill is scheduled to start school Thursday, August 27th, 2020.
In a statement from Board President Charles Hepler:
"The North Schuylkill School District is committed to keeping our students, staff, and community safe. In order to best serve our stakeholders, we have adopted the recommendations of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Department of Education. These recommendations are that the North Schuylkill School District and all Schuylkill County Schools should adopt a hybrid educational model. We feel that these recommendations should be implemented to begin the school year to keep our children and community safe.
We also realize that in these unprecedented times we must be flexible. Our hybrid learning plan will be reevaluated constantly. Our goal has been and always will be to bring all students to school for 100% in person learning five days a week. This switch to hybrid learning does not change that commitment!
We understand the hardship that this may cause some parents, however, we feel that the transition time is necessary in order to comply with state guidance. The North Schuylkill School Board, Administration, Faculty and Staff have worked tirelessly over the summer to ensure that the best educational interests of all students can be met. We still believe that 100% in person learning is essential to achieving this goal, and are committed to bringing all students back. We ask for your understanding, cooperation, patience, and support while we make the transition from online in the spring, to hybrid in the beginning of the school year, and finally to our goal of having all students back in class as soon as possible."
North Schuylkill has released additional details since the meeting on virtual and hybrid learning