Dear Norwin Families,
I hope that you and your families had an enjoyable Thanksgiving weekend. I would like to provide an update regarding our operational models for the month of December.
Beginning on Monday, December 7th up through and including Tuesday, December 22nd (the last school day before the holiday break), the elementary schools and Hillcrest Intermediate School (K-6 students) will resume our hybrid operational model with the addition of synchronous instruction. The Middle School and High School (7-12 students) will operate under a fully remote operational model with the addition of synchronous instruction.
Balancing the health and safety of our students and employees with providing a high-quality education requires that we continually monitor our local data and analyze its impact on our school district. Right now, the biggest impact on Norwin is the high absenteeism rates across all categories of employees. Our two major pressure points are at the Middle School and High School. The high absenteeism rates can be attributed to a number of reasons such as: non-COVID-19 illnesses, COVID-19 positive cases, mandated quarantines by the Pa. Department of Health, and leaves of absences ~ both COVID-19 related and non-COVID-19 related.
For example, if we would have planned to open the High School Tuesday with our hybrid operational model, we would not have had enough adults to properly operate the building. The lack of substitutes across all categories of employees continues to be a critical issue for us ~ especially at the secondary schools.
Also, even though COVID-19 is not being transmitted in our schools, it is certainly being transmitted in the Norwin community. Data from Wednesday, December 3 shows that, specifically for the Norwin community, there is now an incidence rate of 346 and a positivity rate of 31% ~ which is double the positivity rate of Westmoreland County. Unfortunately, this high level of Norwin community transmission is impacting our employees.
Therefore, taking all of this information into consideration, the District will be making changes to our operational models in December. Please know that these changes are being made due to the unfortunate reality of high absenteeism of all categories of employees in our secondary schools, and not because the District believes the secondary schools are unsafe. Once again, thus far, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has told us that COVID-19 is not being transmitted in our schools. However, we must have enough adults in our secondary schools to operate effectively and to properly ensure the safety of both our students and employees.
The following operational models will be implemented from Monday, December 7 through Tuesday, December 22, 2020.
Elementary Schools and Hillcrest Intermediate School:
- We will resume our hybrid operational model with the addition of daily synchronous, live sessions.
- The employee absenteeism rates in these schools are currently not as high as the secondary schools and, with the proper safety protocols in place, we can continue to offer 2 days of in-person instruction a week without compromising the health and safety of our students and employees.
-
There are no changes to the Blue and Gold hybrid schedule.
Norwin Middle School and Norwin High School:
- We will operate under a fully remote operational model with synchronous, live sessions.
- Students will follow their normal start and end times for classes online as if they were physically in school.
- To meet the needs of a small group of special education students, some Middle and High School special education students may be attending school in-person during this time period. Dr. Snyder and building principals will work with case managers to make these determinations.
- High School principals will be contacting families of CWCTC students in order to discuss options for attending CWCTC classes either in-person or remotely.
I know parents have had concerns with asynchronous instruction under the hybrid model. I believe that by adding synchronous instruction to the hybrid model, we will be able to provide additional interactions with teachers and increase students’ active engagement and learning opportunities. We have created guidelines for synchronous instruction during both hybrid and fully remote operational models. In order to assist parents, we have created a NSD Parent Guide for Synchronous Instruction that will provide important information and details regarding synchronous instruction. Please note that there are different expectations for synchronous learning between elementary and secondary students in order to provide developmentally appropriate instruction.
On days when a substitute teacher is in a classroom, synchronous instruction will not take place. Instead, the classroom teacher will notify families about the change in schedule and will provide asynchronous assignments in Google Classroom for the students working remotely.
Let me restate that our goal is to find a way to resume in-person learning as soon as it is safe to do so, and we have not given up on that goal. We know that having children physically back in school is the best possible learning environment for them.
However, I believe these changes are necessary and in the best interest of our students, employees, and our community. Building principals will be providing additional details regarding the changes in operational models.
Thank you for your ongoing cooperation during these unprecedented times.
Best regards,
Dr. Jeff Taylor
Superintendent
