Hempfield teachers, district work out policies to protect teachers from virtual learning issues

Hempfield Area teachers seeking extra protections prior to the start of the academic year reached an agreement with the school board.

A memorandum of understanding was approved by the board and the Hempfield Area Education Association as staff prepares to welcome students back in a hybrid form, with some attending in-person classes while another group watches classes virtually.

“There were needs to protect employees from things that we’d never even dream of five years ago,” said Joe Scheuerman, president of the education association.

Those needs mainly focus around virtual learning. When the year starts, teachers will wear a microphone and a camera will be pointed toward the white board and teachers so students working from home are able to watch the lessons. One of the concerns for teachers, Scheuerman said, was the possibility of those videos being altered.

“A lot of teachers are worried because it is not uncommon somewhere along the line in a school where a student takes a teacher’s image or likeness, and we’ve seen students do some horrible things with those, making memes, making pictures,” he said.

In the past, Scheuerman said, students making those images would often do it on their own time without using school resources, rendering the district unable to take disciplinary action.

After working with the school board, those concerns were addressed in Policy 815, which states that students can be disciplined for altering images from lesson videos. Original files will be saved in case a video is altered.

Other concerns the memorandum addressed centered around special needs teachers and legal documents that require them to provide certain services. Under the memorandum, if those services are not met due to mandates that schools close or is stay-at-home orders are again put into place that teachers will not be held liable.

The memorandum also addressed issues that could arise day-to-day, like teacher evaluations, planning periods and breaks throughout the day.

School officials and members of the education association, with the help of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, worked on the memorandum over the summer.

“We are working together to provide the best opportunities for our students during this challenging time,” Superintendent Tammy Wolicki said.

Scheuerman added, “What was nice the whole time was when we had a concern, we expressed, I hope, a legitimate, intelligent concern and the district listened to us and said, ‘OK, let’s think how we can work through that.’ The district had concerns and we had really good discussion and we were able to, I believe, address everyone’s big concerns.”

Students are scheduled to return to school Aug. 27.

“I think the 10 biggest problems we’re going to have, we haven’t even thought of yet,” Scheuerman said. “We’re going to get back to school and have kids and go, ‘we didn’t see this one coming.’ In which case we’ll be discussing with our administration again, hey here’s a concern, here’s a problem, what can we do? But I think we’ve worked well this summer to figure it out so far.”