Quaker Valley outlines options for students to return to classes

The Quaker Valley School District has developed a return-to-school plan for the start of classes later this month that calls for both online and in-person instruction depending on the status of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our goal has been to open in-person,” Superintendent Tammy Andreyko said during the July 28 school board meeting during which the plan was approved. “But we’re realistic that the pandemic will guide our decisions.”

Aug. 26 is the scheduled start date for students in kindergarten through ninth grade. Students in grades 10, 11 and 12 will start school on Aug. 27.

While the district used guidance from health and education officials as well as teachers, administrators and parents, the plan was developed with a focus on “what is safe for our children,” said Susan Gentile, the district’s director of instruction and learning.

“If covid rates are high, then we need to move toward more of an online situation as opposed to when they (covid-19 rates) are low and it’s safe for traditional instruction,” she said.

Several of the recommendations made by parents who were surveyed have been incorporated into the online instructional plans for the upcoming year, Gentile said.

Some of the suggestions include:

• Use of district teachers and curriculum whenever possible

• More “live” learning

• Schedules that resemble students’ regular classroom routine

• Flexible options to meet family needs

• Options for student collaboration and socialization with peers and teachers

• Different plans or approaches for elementary and secondary students based on their needs

• Increased instruction time for all content

• Grading that reflects a mastery of the material

• Additional parent resources and communication

The current plan for the district’s elementary pupils calls for four days of in-person instruction and one day of online instruction, Gentile said.

“We want to make sure we could have as much in-person instruction as possible at the elementary level,” she said. “It is difficult to implement an online program because students often cannot work independently.”

The online portion of the instruction would support the return to in-person classes by mimicking a school room setting, with a teacher leading a class of students who attend using a meeting app and follow the schedule.

If that option is adopted, it would be reassessed after four weeks and adjusted if necessary.

District officials said middle and high school students won’t be able to attend in-person classes four days a week because of the size of the student population and the configuration of the buildings.

Instead, students would use an online meeting application to attend classes with a teacher three days a week.

To reduce the number of students in the buildings, half will attend in-person classes on separate days and all of them will have one day of independent remote instruction.

Students in both the elementary, middle and high schools also have the option of attending all classes online only through the district’s cyber school QVeLearning.

Because much of the instruction is expected to be done online this year, the district has been working to improve that delivery method by providing teachers with additional technology and professional development.

“We feel that we can offer a really strong and robust option that builds off what we started in the spring,” Gentile said in reference to the governor’s emergency shutdown order.