Dear Parents, Guardians,

Faculty, Staff, and Students:

Over the past four months, we have all been impacted by COVID-19. I encourage us all to continue to support each other with compassion and grace. Reopening our schools brings new challenges for our community. We must balance the need for our children to return to school with the public health challenge to avoid increasing COVID-19 infection rates among our loved ones and neighbors.

The fundamental question is this: In what manner can we open schools safely by meeting physical distancing, masking, and hygiene guidelines established by the state and the CDC to mitigate the spread of COVID-19?

Our conclusion is that moving from online learning to fully open, in-person learning is too great a risk to take when the health of our students, faculty, staff and families are at stake. We also do not want to open schools and then close a few weeks later due to a virus outbreak. With that in mind, the Hybrid Model for grades K-12 as described below will be recommended for approval to the Board of School Directors Aug. 10. In the Hybrid Model, only half the students attend school on any given day. We must all be mindful that circumstances change quickly and a fully online opening cannot be ruled out as of today.

Reopening School - a Hybrid Model for all BASD Schools

Evidence indicates that, dividing students into two groups, each of which comes to school 2 days per week, substantially decreases infection risk in comparison to all students attending school every day. In the Hybrid Model, elementary class sizes will average 10 students per class. Middle and High School class sizes will average 15 students per class. Smaller class sizes and social distancing combined with consistent use of masks significantly reduce infection risk. Students will wear face coverings while in school (with appropriate breaks depending on the age).

The Hybrid Model

?Tuesdays & Thursdays: Students with last names starting with the letters A through L will report to school and attend classes in person. Students with the last names starting with letters M through Z will not report to school and will complete assignments online.

?Wednesdays & Fridays: Students with last names starting with the letters M through Z will report to school and attend classes in person. Students with the last names starting with letters A through L will not report to school and will complete assignments online.

?Mondays: All students will complete work independently online. Students will not report to school for in-person instruction.

?We want to make sure children in the same household with different last names attend school on the same days of the week. We will use the last name of the oldest student in the household to determine the days of the week for all children in the household.

?Online work will be more robust and will require a greater investment of time than our emergency online instruction last spring.

?We will return to our regular grading systems at each level.

?BASD Childcare will operate at the elementary level Monday through Friday with full day, before and after school care. More details will be forthcoming on how full daycare will operate and how we will fill limited spots. Please register your interest in BASD Childcare by Aug. 5 at this link: BASD Childcare Request Form

?Each school will send specific details regarding schedules and safety protocols later in August.

?Parents should be prepared to provide face coverings, hand sanitizer and disposable cleaning wipes for their children. The district will also make available hand sanitizer and disposable cleaning wipes.

Online Options: We will also have available to students with underlying health conditions or concerns two entirely online options:

1. The full-time BASD Cyber Academy (not aligned to the daily school schedule) that is taught by a non-BASD teacher, and employs a curriculum aligned to the same standards as the BASD curriculum. Students in the full time Cyber Academy must remain there through the first marking period. This option requires students to register by Aug. 5 at this link: BASD Cyber Academy

Registration. If you have already submitted an Application, there is no need to do so again.

2. BASD e-Classroom - A limited number of full time, online courses/grade level classes taught by BASD teachers (not necessarily a teacher from the student’s home school) using the BASD curriculum. Students in this option can transition back into a regular class as of Oct. 1 or anytime thereafter with two weeks advance notice. This option requires students to register by Aug. 5 at this link: BASD e-Classroom Registration .

Based on the number of students registered for each option, we will make final decisions on the format and availability of Option #2. Parents will receive notification of confirmed online registration.

Bus Transportation

BASD bus services for eligible students will operate with a maximum of two students per seat. The hybrid model significantly reduces the number of students riding a bus on any given day. All students must wear face coverings while on the bus. Siblings must sit together.

Communicating Public

Health Concerns

Parents, guardians, students, teachers and staff are understandably concerned with what happens when a person is diagnosed with COVID-19. The district will notify parents with children in a school if there is a presumed positive or a confirmed positive case of COVID-19 involving a staff member or student of that school. We will also post that information on district social media sites for the wider community. For confidentiality reasons, we cannot and will not identify the person who is presumed or confirmed positive.

Staff members and students who may have come into close contact with the individual will be directly contacted by their local health department with instructions to self-quarantine. Close contact is defined by the CDC as an individual who has been within 6 feet of a positive case for 15 minutes or more. Close contacts of a positive case are required by the PA Department of Health to quarantine for 14 days and will be monitored by the health department. All public health protocols, mitigation, surveillance and contact tracing will be strictly followed.

While it is impossible to meet the needs and concerns of every family, BASD’s reopening plan is based on expert medical advice matched with our educational expertise to strike a balance between the educational need for students to be in school and the public health need to slow the spread of the virus. As we have all learned, conditions and guidance for responding to this pandemic change regularly. We should all be prepared for potential future changes to school schedules, including the closure of schools.

Please see Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) at this link: www.basdschools.org/reopeningFAQ.

The Board of School Directors is interested in your comments or questions not addressed in the FAQs document.https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScnvT1uUd1xaFj44OK2DeOEdzNUWvqZM507FmbT2dwWIqPwuQ/viewform

Sincerely,

Joseph Roy, Ed.D

Superintendent of Schools