State requirements announced Monday by the Pennsylvania Department of Education present a challenge to Valley Grove School District’s reopening plan, but no changes have been made yet.
“There’s been some recent guidance that has come out today (Monday),” Superintendent Kevin Briggs told school board members at Monday night’s work session. “(The state’s) new guideline is that students must wear masks anytime they are on school property.”
“At this point we have moved forward with what we have approved in July,” Briggs said.
“We anticipated changes like this happening,” Briggs said. “It’s just frustrating.”
School board member Bill Copley said this new state requirement will likely cause more parents to opt their children out of physically attending school and instead take classes online.
“I’m not going to expect my kid to wear a mask when I don’t want to wear one 20 to 30 minutes a day,” Copley said.
A survey conducted last month by the school district showed 47% of parents said they were uncomfortable or very uncomfortable with their children wearing masks.
“Every class will look different” Briggs said.
He said students who can’t complete their online work within traditional school hours with teachers and classmates (synchronous online learning) will still be able to complete their work and get a grade if they complete it at a later time (asynchronous online learning).
“There are challenges ahead with remote learning, some of which we probably haven’t even thought of yet,” Briggs said.
