Hempfield School District issued the following announcement.
As you may have heard, the PA Department of Health (DOH) has moved Lancaster County to the “substantial” level of community transmission. There are now 38 counties in Pennsylvania at this highest level of the monitoring system.
On Monday, November 9, our district team participated in a call with the PA Department of Education (PDE) and heard directly from them that PDE will not make any recommendations about shifting to fully remote instruction unless Lancaster County remains in the substantial phase for two consecutive weeks. Even if a potential shift in instruction is recommended by PDE after two consecutive weeks, they also noted that local community context will be a factor for each school district to consider.
Read our district’s message here about What You Need to Know About A Possible Switch from In-Person/Virtual Learning to Full Virtual Learning Due to COVID.
It is our district’s intent to remain open for in-person learning as long as possible and pending any directives from PDE to shift to fully virtual instruction. One positive message from Monday’s call is that, while Lancaster County is noting an increase in community spread, schools are not considered primary spreaders of COVID at this time.
We appreciate the diligence of our school community in conducting symptom screenings at home, staying home when feeling ill, wearing facial coverings during the day, washing hands and/or using hand sanitizer, and social distancing whenever possible. Please continue to take these important steps for the health and well-being of each other.
PDE will continue working with the DOH to best guide and support school districts. They recommend that school districts monitor the DOH dashboard. We expect to hear from PDE at the end of this week with impacts and potential recommendations.
We will continue to provide a district COVID update at our school board meeting during the first meeting of the month. In addition, we will also provide written updates as new information emerges.
Thank you for your continued support!
Original source can be found here.
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