What to do about School this Fall?

The question of summer 2020

Families throughout Coatesville have been overwhelmed by the idea of what school may look like come this fall. As CASD awaits to see what type of restrictions continue to be placed on educational institutions in Pennsylvania, many parents are left more confused than ever as they are forced to wait until the very last minute to decide what is best for their children.

While CASD is still preparing their “reopening plan,”  Coatesville is not alone. Social media has permitted us to see that other districts are feeling the same pressure and have already had to change their plans just days after establishing one due to the ever-changing mandates by  PDE. For example, initially schools were told students could be 3’ apart and now the mandate has changed to 6’. Superintendents in Chester County are discussing weekly how to best meet the needs of all students. We know this is not easy on any districts and certainly not easy on you as a parents. 

Just like you, CCAP has been mulling over what ”school” will look like in just a little over a month.  However, though CASD School Board has not approved our reopening plan just yet, Mr. Hanna did conduct a Reopening Strategy Discussion online on July 21st to answer parent and community member questions.  This prompted many comments on social media. 

Here are some of these questions and comments regarding the reopening plan:

"At what point do families make the final decision as to which route they’re taking (in person or virtual)?"

"I read over this, but am not sure I understand... Are they saying we will be opening in school 5 days per week? I saw the options and revisions ...is anyone else confused? Sorry if I am being thick..."

"Ok so... I'm still not super confident in sending my kiddo back to school even with a hybrid schedule (if we end up doing that). I think it's a neat idea, but seeing the amount of people who are all "My kid NEEDS to go back to school" along with the anti-mask crowd isn't giving me much confidence in some parents keeping their kids home if they're sick.
...
1) when do we notify the school about our choice and
2) will she have to do cyber all year, or will we have the option to re-enroll her in regular school when it's safer to do so?"

"[The CASD website] is not organized well at all - site is hard to follow. And yes extremely confusing"

"This is why they should be focusing on working out the kinks of virtual schooling instead of wasting time on any plan for in-person school, which is unsafe to begin with and going to be irrelevant a few weeks after opening, when cases explode and school buildings have to close again."

"What is the virtual option and how do I get information on it?"

"If we elect to do the virtual instruction, is that through the Brandywine virtual academy or is that different? If it's different, how does that work?" (It seemed as if MANY people had this confusion - it is not clear to families that "virtual learning" and Cyber are different)

"Do you think they’ll discuss the differences between the two [virtual learning and Cyber]? Or I should say, how the virtual learning may improve from the end of this school year? I’m on the fence on which one to do."

"If the teachers are teaching in school, how do the kids who choose virtual get instruction and from who?"

"I was told from the CASH teachers when I was looking at switching to Cyber and was told that are not connected with the teachers at CASH.  They are connected with activities"

"I’m STILL waiting on the Cyber school admin to get back to me after sending 2 emails with questions."

"The fact they they are still even wasting time and energy discussing in-person school at all makes me think otherwise."

"Also, is there a deadline for when the school needs to finalize their plan? Or when we have to decide on an option we're comfortable with? I fear if we wait too long any other options will disappear or fill up.  Did they ever release the information from the transportation survey they sent out around that time, too?"

"This is all contradicting itself. Say what is planned for kids, and I think that is what we all need to know. And waiting to hear"

"Has anyone heard about students attending TCHS and what the plan is for that? My son is in Allied Health and will be at a hospital everyday. Concerned about those students coming back on campus after being in a medical facility for most of the day."

 "Just want to confirm what I'm reading: students will be going back to the school? I honesty don't feel comfortable with that."

CCAP realizes that the District may not have all the answers right now, and we do believe that Mr. Hanna did his very best to be transparent about the "unknowns.” Unfortunately, this meeting seemed to have caused even more questions.  In fact, the discussion on our Facebook Group really would be a useful resource for District Administrators. Mr. Hanna and the administrative team ideally could create a document addressing these concerns.

Over the last month or so we have noticed that parents everywhere (not just Coatesville) are debating whether to even send their kids back into school buildings if school buildings should even open.  Seeing that no one really knows what is happening... CCAP wanted to make sure we are doing our best to educate you on your child’s educational options.

Over the next week or so, we are going to start sharing educational options and what that means for YOU.  Sadly, we recognize that some people do not have options, and in these situations, we would like to see our district (in conjunction with community resources) make every attempt to help those families. Families need the District to be proactive in informing our community of the resources available to support them.

Next week we will start unraveling educational options for district students, presenting the “reopening plan” that will be presented and voted on by the board on Tuesday.  

Beginning the first week in August, we will be covering Home Schooling. We discovered that many parents are investigating this option. As it is not one in our wheelhouse, we located some experts. We are excited for you to hear from them!

Our team is feeling the same stress and uncertainty as many of you. Our goal continues to be to educate the community and advocate for the best education for our community’s children. That’s why we are very excited to begin to present possible solutions to help you. 

We at CCAP will also have the CEO of Avon Grove Charter, Kristin Bishop, explain their plan for our Charter parent readers.

4:22 pm edited for clarity: We will also be presenting the plans on place for the schools our community’s students attend.