Amid mounting covid-19 case numbers across the state and county, New Hope-Solebury School District (NHSSD) said Thursday that it will return to virtual-only learning starting Nov. 23 and continuing until Dec. 4.
In-person learning with early dismissal had originally been scheduled for Nov. 23-24, with Thanksgiving holiday slated for Nov. 25-27.
“We are concerned about the implications the Thanksgiving holiday weekend will have on the number of cases in our school district,” NHSSD Superintendent Dr. Charles W. Lentz said in a Thursday letter to parents. “We have been experiencing significant issues with staffing because of employees being ill or quarantined because of the spread of the virus in our region. Our ability to cover these classes has been severely compromised by a significant decline in the number of substitute teachers available in our county.”
Lentz said he will make the recommendation to temporarily transition to the virtual instructional schedule implemented in the fall at Thursday night’s school board meeting.
“This will permit our school district a break to ensure that any spread of the virus in the community because of travel and gatherings over the holidays will not have an adverse
impact on our school community and lead to a potentially longer period of closure,” Lentz explained.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health on Thursday confirmed that as of noon that there were 7,126 new cases of covid-19, a daily record, bringing the statewide total to 288,978. There were 116 new deaths reported in the state on Wednesday.
With a Pa. Right to Know Request, I followed up Supt. Lentz Nov. 19th claim to the school community that NUMBEROUS[ my emphasis] parents requested the district to transition to a virtual setting for the week following Thanksgiving.
I received a response today, Dec 4th that stated, No Responsive Records Exist.” So, is the Supt’s. claim of “numerous” a fabrication? Did the “numerous” parents all call the supt. on the phone thus not leaving a paper trail? Are we to believe that numerous people called the supt. and he made no note of that? So what do we say about his credibility?
As Recommended by Supt. Lentz, The school board voted to go all virtual until until Dec.4th with 7 in favor of his recommendation and 2 opposed. the two opposed who wanted brick and mortar were Mr. Patel and Mr. Augenblick.
Part of the notice that went out yesterday from Supt. Lentz was quite an eyeopener.” We have received numerous requests [from the parents] for a transition to virtual setting in the week following Thanksgiving Break because of family travel plans out of state. which will substantially impact our instructional continuity.”
WOW !!! Do you believe this? This district, which is funded almost exclusively by taxpayer’s money to have students learn in the traditional brick and mortar setting, the best setting, is being dictated to by parents so as not tom affect their out of state vacation plans. Talk about the inmates running the asylum. What a wonderful opportunity for the families to pick up and bring back corona.
And by the way , I asked for Supt. Lentz to quantify the number of parental requests for out of state. No answer from him.
Too bad that we don’t have a school board that would say that the schools will be opened for brick and mortar with those who are away on vacation will(1) have to make up the work and (2)have unexcused absences noted on their records.
I attended and spoke at last night’s virtual meeting. As far as getting substitutes, should anyone be shocked that the district has a hard time finding subs when day to day subs earn just $100 a day which is at the rate of $18,000 per year.
Who in their right mind would want to teach for that amount when a new teacher earns at the rate of $256 a day for a $50,000 salary. Even offering $200 a day is at the rate of just $36,000 a year.
In order to get subs the district has(1) pay more- at least match a starting teacher’s salary (2) have some of your 15 administrators including Supt. Lentz chip in and teach( 3) Expand the district’s hiring policy which means put ads in other counties besides Buck’s such as Philadelphia and Trenton. After all, New Hope -Solebury is supposed to be a diverse community. Right?