2022-23 Calendar Starts After Labor Day, New Health and Safety Plan Goes Into Effect February 7
The Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board’s December 13 meeting focused on the proposed school-year calendars for the next two years, and on the district’s proposed health and safety plan.
On the topic of school calendars, it was noted that the proposed 2022-23 calendar offered a choice of starting either before or after Labor Day, while the proposed 2023-24 calendar calls for school to start before Labor Day. Dr. Ashwina Mosakowski, the district’s assistant director of education, then reviewed the process by which the Education Affairs Committee had arrived at their proposals: at the September 21 meeting, Superintendent Marseille had described the factors that the committee proposed to consider in developing the calendars and solicited feedback from teachers, community members, students, and administrators; at the November 4 meeting, the committee reviewed the history of the district’s school calendar and examined the school calendars in the Bucks, Montgomery, and Delaware county districts; and at the December 1st meeting, the committee presented proposed calendars for 2022-23 and 2023-24 and described various factors that they had considered, including religious and cultural holidays, excused absences for religious holidays, and legal constraints requiring students to attend school regularly.
The most extensive discussion at the December 13 meeting was about which religious and cultural holidays the calendar should recognize, and who needs to be at the table to make that decision. Dr. Marseille noted that this topic is proving complex. Hanover Research has been retained to conduct a “diversity, equity and inclusion” audit, which he hopes will assist in the decision. (He noted that some of the data requested by the auditors has been challenging to retrieve.) He also announced that focus groups on the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion will meet on several dates in January, and that a survey on the topic will be emailed to district community members on January 6. (Please see wssd.org for focus-group times and locations.)
The committee called attention to several elements of the proposed calendars: the snow days, the graphic design, the additional information included on their reverse sides, and the designated professional development days. (The calendars envision full-day sessions for K-12 teachers—scheduled to accommodate the needs of the academic year and to dovetail where possible with holiday weekends.) The committee noted that June 19 is now a federal holiday on which district schools will be closed.
The committee also noted the impact of the proposed calendars on school music and athletic programs: the district’s summer band, choral, and orchestra summer camps would run from June 20 to July 21; the marching-band practice start date would be in August, but the precise date will depend on whether school starts before or after Labor Day; football practice would start on August 8; and other fall sports would begin on August 15.
Reasons to start school before Labor Day were discussed: it allows students to have more instructional time before they undergo state-mandated testing; it enables children’s summer activities to start earlier (in mid-June); it allows for a break between the last day of school and the first day of summer school; and it makes the number of days in the two semesters more equal. However, the board vice president, Dr. David Grande, expressed a concern about whether, at this point, parents would be getting enough notice of a pre-Labor Day start for Fall 2022 to enable them to plan for the upcoming year.
A vote was then taken upon a motion, and the board voted 5-3 to accept the calendar, and start the Fall 2022 school year after Labor Day. (Those voting to start after Labor Day were Dr. Grande, Rachel Holbert, Lawrence Kutys, Wendy Voet, and Kelly Wachtman; those voting to start before Labor Day were Kevin Henry, Mary Jo Witkowski-Smith, and Nannette Whitsett. Jennifer Lentz was absent from the meeting.)
The board members present then unanimously approved a pre-Labor-Day start for the following school year (2023-24).
Health and Safety
Next, Superintendent Marseille described proposed changes to the district’s Health and Safety Plan, which will go into effect on February 7. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld the lower court ruling that struck down the mask mandate imposed by Governor Tom Wolf’s administration, so decisions now returned to local control. Dr. Marseille noted that the health and safety strategies that the school district has been following since last September have been guided by Delaware County data. However, he said, “This data doesn’t drill down to what’s happening in our community.” For that reason, the administration has decided to use their own building-level and district-level data to make a better-informed decision about mask mandates.
He reported that, within the district’s school population of 4.688 people (students, teachers, and staff), 107 (2.28%) have been reported as testing positive for COVID during the period September 9 through December 12. He also said that, based on past experience, a spike in COVID and flu cases is expected in January due to the diseases’ seasonal rhythms and to increased transmission from indoor gatherings over winter break, and therefore the administration feels that waiting until February 7 to implement the new plan (which is expected to relax some safety restrictions) will allow time for case numbers to subside. It will also allow more time for students who are between 5 and 12 years old to move to fully vaccinated status. He added that, meanwhile, the current Test-to-Stay program will continue as is, and he strongly urged parents to notify the school when their child has received the COVID vaccination.
He explained that the district will be monitoring the incidence rate in each school building: any move to mask-optional status will be decided on a building-by-building basis. In any given building, when the incidence rate has remained below 2% for a 14-day period, masks will become optional, and if the incidence rate rises to 2% or higher, masks will become mandatory. (Numerically, 2% translates to 29 cases at Strath Haven High School, 20 cases at Strath Haven Middle School, 13 cases at Wallingford Elementary School, 13 cases at Swarthmore-Rutledge School, and 12 cases at Nether Providence Elementary School.)
It was also explained that the Pennsylvania Department of Health requires a school to close if it has had a 5% COVID case rate over a 14-day period. (Numerically, 5% translates to 73 cases at Strath Haven High School, 50 cases at Strath Haven Middle School, 32 cases at Wallingford Elementary School, 32 cases at Swarthmore-Rutledge School, and 29 cases at Nether Providence Elementary School.)
Deb Sweeney, the district’s COVID nurse, explained that, when school policies about masks change, it can sometimes feel as if the school is moving the goalposts, but in fact, it’s the virus that’s moving the goal posts: when new variants, such as delta and omicron, arise, that can change the rate of transmission and the level of people’s immunity—and it can take weeks for the nature of those changes to become clear. She emphasized that the district’s goal is always to keep children in school and to return to pre-pandemic normalcy.
You can view a recording of this meeting of the Wallingford-Swarthmore School Board.
