Plum School District to have all students back to full-time, in-person learning in March

Plum School District officials plan to gradually allow students to come back to school five days a week with a goal of having all learners back full-time in March.

The announcement was made via the district’s notification system and by board members Tuesday night.

Students who need intense intervention and those who failed at least one core class during the first semester can have in-person instruction five days a week starting Feb. 1.

The rest of the students would remain in the hybrid model, split into two groups with each group in classes a couple of days a week and online learning in their off days.

The district will evaluate the move after two weeks to see what impact it has on possible covid cases and ability to operate.

Students in kindergarten and first-, second-, fifth-, seventh-, 11th- and 12th-graders would join the others in person five days a week starting Feb. 22 contingent upon low case numbers and safety regulations being followed.

Plans indicate there would be another evaluation period with the goal of having all students come back full-time on March 15.

Special-education students had already been permitted to attend in-person classes five days a week.

Board President Mike Devine has been advocating the return of students for quite some time.

“From the beginning, I wanted to see a plan,” he said. “We have a very good plan now. During the end of November to the beginning of December and into early January, it was hard to advocate for anything with where the numbers were with the covid spread.

“As long as we can do it safely, which I think this plan covers the safety for the teachers and the students, that’s what I’ve been advocating for. To say that any other school board member has not been advocating for it is just false information. Everyone on the board wants these kids back in school if we can do it in a safe manner.”

The announcement comes on the heels of several meetings in which parents have begged their elected leaders to openly talk about the plans to bring students back on a full-time basis.

District Solicitor Dayne Dice said Tuesday those talks took place behind closed doors in executive session because of public safety and possible litigation.

Many parents have reached out to district officials the past few months with complaints about virtual learning and called for schools to have in-person classes four to five days a week.

Several of them came to Tuesday night’s board meeting wearing white shirts with black lettering that read “We want a choice 4 in person learning.

The shirts were made by Tom and Dawn Feeney, parents of 8-year-old Terra Feeney, a second-grader at Pivik Elementary.

Tom Feeney said he was inspired by some yard signs in the borough with similar lettering, and hoped the board would get the message.

The Plum couple has relied on relatives and the YMCA to help watch their daughter as they go to work. Neither parent has been able to stay home much to assist Terra with virtual learning.

“The crying every day when she wakes up and realizes its not a day that she goes to school,” Tom Feeney said of the hardship their daughter goes through. “When we were leaving today, she knew where we were going. … She was begging us as we were walking out the door to come home with good news.”

Parent Nicole O’Leath said her two sons, Andy and Easton, have anxiety and are suffering mentally and socially as a result of not being with their peers at Pivik.

She said other parents have been posting about studies that show covid transmission in schools is very minimal, and the young learners’ mental anguish is more of a problem than the virus.

“There really is not a rationale to keep our children home,” O’Leath said. “A lot of us are experiencing some pretty severe emotional effects with our children as a result of them not being in school. We believe that those far outweigh the potential negative effects of covid.”

Devine said he sympathizes with all the parents going through these difficult times.

“I understand their frustration,” he said. “I live it every day. I work at home and have two kids that I have to help educate. It’s not a lack of empathy. I empathize with them, and I know a lot of our board members do the same thing. A lot of the parents have said it, ‘Education is not a cookie-cutter thing.’

“Every kid needs different adaptations for their education. The new model does address these, albeit maybe not as fast as some want to see it. It does get all of the kids back in the schools within about a six-week period.”

More information about how the district is handing the pandemic is available at pbsd.net.