• December 3, 2020

    Dear T/E Families and Staff,

    I hope you and your families enjoyed the Thanksgiving break. I would like to share information on our reopening timeline as well as updated guidance that will affect how we will determine when our school buildings will be open or closed going forward.

    December 2020 Reopening Timeline

    Beginning next week, we will follow the reopening timeline that we communicated to families on November 18:

    • Monday, December 7 – Identified students with special needs returning to school buildings.
    • Thursday, December 10 – Our regular hybrid schedule resumes for elementary students, with students in cohort L-Z who selected hybrid instruction returning to school buildings.
    • Monday, December 14 – Our regular hybrid schedule resumes for all students in grades K-12, with students in cohort A-K who selected hybrid instruction returning to school buildings.

    Families who selected the fully virtual learning option will not be impacted by the reopening timeline and will continue with daily virtual instruction. All students participating in hybrid instruction will continue to learn virtually on Wednesdays.

    The Pennsylvania Departments of Health (DOH) and Education (PDE) issued new mandates last week regarding the operation of schools. The guidelines are lengthy and detailed. Included below is a summary of the key developments, and then a more detailed explanation that includes embedded links to the State documents for those who wish to read them directly.  

    Summary of New Developments

    The State has required all school districts to either move to 100% virtual instruction or attest that the local school district will follow State face covering orders and State mandates for responding to COVID-19 cases during in-person instruction.

    The mandates for responding to identified COVID-19 cases establish low numerical thresholds for each PA school, which may require a temporary shift to 100% virtual instruction.

    TESD will be following the DOH and PDE guidelines for determining whether or not in-person instruction may continue.

    This is likely to cause more frequent temporary closures of single school buildings with less advanced notice for families and staff.

    More Details on New Guidance from the State on Closing School Buildings

    The new DOH and PDE guidance for school districts provides a process to follow when a case of COVID-19 has been identified in an individual who has been present in a school building. The guidance shifts the threshold for closing school buildings from a countywide community transmission level to a combination of community transmission and school incidence numbers. The DOH and PDE have created a chart that combines county community transmission levels and the number of cases of COVID-19 in a school building during a rolling 14-day period to determine when a school building needs to temporarily transition to 100% virtual instruction. The rolling 14-day period begins on the day that the positive or probable case first started showing symptoms of COVID-19. Once a school reaches a specific number of cases within a rolling 14-day period, the school building will need to close for in-person instruction for a certain number of days.

    What does this mean for TESD?

    • Each school’s hybrid population determines the number of COVID-19 cases that will mandate temporary closure of the school building. TESD elementary schools are considered small school buildings, TESD middle schools are medium school buildings and Conestoga High School is a large school building.
    • During the current period of substantial community transmission, a temporary school building closure will be required if there are two or more student or staff cases at one of our elementary schools, four or more cases at one of our middle schools or six or more cases at the high school over a rolling 14-day period.
    • The DOH and PDE guidance indicates that once a school building has reopened after the required period of closure, the rolling 14-day period starts over again at zero, and a new rolling 14-day period will not begin again until there is a new case.

    Who is counted in the case count?

    • A case in a school setting would include any confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 when the individual was physically present in the school setting during the infectious period, including but not limited to, instruction, work, sports or extra-curricular activities. Students who are participating in fully virtual instruction are not counted in the case count unless they enter school property for a reason such as a sports practice or extra-curricular activity.

    While we will do our best to provide families with as much advance notice as possible when a school must temporarily stop in-person instruction, it is possible or even likely that TESD may learn that a school has reached its threshold with little warning.  We will follow our emergency closing communication protocol of using TE All-Call and the TESD website to alert families and staff of a building closure and a switch to fully virtual instruction.

    TESD COVID-19 Dashboard

    The TESD dashboard was established to provide information on positive COVID-19 cases in our schools to help parents make informed decisions about sending their children to school buildings during hybrid instruction. When the transition to hybrid instruction resumes on Monday, December 7, we will resume posting cases of COVID-19 that have been reported to us on the dashboard. In addition to reporting confirmed positive cases, we will now include probable cases in the case count.

    It is important to note that the dashboard indicates the date TESD was made aware of the positive or probable case. This date may be different from the date used by the DOH and PDE to establish the beginning of the rolling 14-day period to determine a temporary school closure. The DOH/PDE rolling 14-day period begins when an individual first exhibited symptoms while the TESD dashboard tracks a case as of the date the District learned of the case. As a result, the dashboard should not be used by parents to determine whether or not a school needs to close in-person instruction. We will communicate this information directly with you as it occurs.

    High School Winter Sports

    At this time, there has not been a decision made as to when the high school winter sports season will begin. Conestoga High School is part of the Central League and primarily competes against schools within the league. Many schools in the Central League are located in Delaware County, which has mandated a countywide postponement of winter sports competition through at least January 2, 2021. The District Athletic Office will share information with families and staff as it becomes available.

    I sympathize with those of you who are growing weary of the regularly changing metrics and school instructional models. I can’t tell you how much I wish things would stand still long enough to allow our students, families and staff to settle into dependable routines. At the same time, I recognize that this pandemic is dynamic and requires our health authorities to adjust as new information is learned. 

    We will continue to communicate with you as developments occur. Our staff remains committed to supporting all children, whether they are learning virtually or in-person. We look forward to safely transitioning back to school next week, and we sincerely hope all our schools will be able to remain open for hybrid instruction as long as possible.

    Sincerely,

    Dr. Richard Gusick
    Superintendent of Schools