First day of school delayed for State College Area School District students
State College Area School District students will get a little bit more time in their summer vacation.
The first day of in-person school has been pushed back one day to Wednesday, Superintendent Bob O’Donnell wrote in a letter to parents and guardians. The first day of synchronous online learning for K-5 students will be Friday.
“If you recall, we anticipated this need earlier in the summer and shifted two in-service days to this month to prepare,” he said. “But in the end, we found we need even more time to carry out the plan.”
Some of the challenges, according to O’Donnell, include the installation of and training for new instructional technologies, adjustments to the secondary student schedule, and changing the K-12 educational model selections. Faculty and staff have been back at school preparing for classes to begin since Tuesday.
State College’s plan for the school year gives students and their families the option to choose between learning in-person, synchronous in-person and remote, or through the district’s Virtual Academy.
The revised schedule for the start of school is as follows:
- Tuesday: Kindergarten orientation remains as originally scheduled
- Wednesday: Grades K-5 in-school; Grades 6-12 A-L remote learning; Grades 6-12 M-Z students in-school; Grades 6-12 remote only students begin synchronous learning; K-12 Virtual Academy students begin school
- Thursday: Grades 6-12 A-L students in-school; Grades 6-12 M-Z remote learning
Friday: Grades K-5 remote students begin synchronous learning
The delay for K-5 students beginning remote synchronous learning, O’Donnell said, is to give teachers more time to ensure that the in-school students understand the impact of the COVID-19 health and safety plan on classroom rules, arrival and dismissal procedures and lunch and recess. Instructional coaches will soon be sending remote students a menu of learning options for those first two days.
“We sincerely apologize for this late move; we know last-minute changes are hard on families and would not have made this difficult decision unless it was extremely important,” O’Donnell said. “After our preparations played out this week, we recognized that we simply would not be ready on Tuesday. We wish that we could have started as originally planned, but this extra time will put us in a much better place to welcome students back.”
