If cases of COVID-19 keep rising, Bradford Area School District will revert to online learning, cautioned Superintendent Katy Pude in a video on the district’s website Monday.
Pude explained that Gov. Tom Wolf had left it up to school districts to determine how to begin the school year. And the state Department of Education has guidelines for how a district should proceed if virus case counts were to rise to certain levels.
“If a community has low spread, which we have had the entire year, the recommended model would be hybrid or in-person,” she explained. With low community spread up until the past week, the district was open and teaching in-person classes.
“However if the community spread is determined to be in the moderate range for more than 2 weeks, schools are encouraged to go to a hybrid plan or to go online for a requisite period of time,” Pude said.
Last week was the first time that McKean County has been in the moderate range for community spread.
“We are moving towards a more moderate spread which means if this trend continues we may need to go to online instruction for our entire district for a requisite period of time,” she said.
She had advice for people who don’t want to see that happen — follow the mitigation protocols, and be an example to the students.
“As a community I encourage you to strongly pull together to help rectify this situation, so even if we do go into an online situation that it would just be for a short period of time.”
Pude continued, “That’s going to take all of us to commit to saying this is a public health crisis and we need to look out for each other and that we will wear our masks, and that we will wash our hands, and that we will social distance.
“The school district cannot do this alone. If you would like to keep your schools open, I am begging you to please commit to setting that example for our children,” the superintendent said.
Should the district have to change to online learning, Pude explained, it will be different from what it was in the spring.
“All classes will be taught by your child’s teacher,” she said.
The superintendent stressed that attendance still will be mandatory.
“It would be very, very important, because we need to follow all the guidelines and rules set by the Department of Education.”
She noted that further information will be sent out to parents via the notification system already in place, and will be posted on the district’s webpage.
