Springfield Schools To Open Virtually Through Early October

SPRINGFIELD, PA — The Springfield School District will start the 2020-2021 school year fully digitally, according to officials.

According to the district, the decision was made Thursday due to trends of the coronavirus in Delaware County.

"The positive case counts in Delaware County are trending up with 513 new cases in the week ending July 31st compared to 380 new cases the week before," Superintendent Dr. Anthony Barber said in a letter to families on Aug. 4. "Case counts are the number of people who are testing positive for COVID-19. These counts include children and adults."

The district recently approved to reopen schools with a tiered red-yellow-green system.

Under the yellow plan, the district will operate with a hybrid learning model that includes in-person and online learning.

The red plan includes a fully virtual instructional model with synchronous and asynchronous learning.

Barber said the district was doing all it could to have in-person learning when school starts on Sept. 8

"However, the numbers simply do not allow us to do so," he said. "Our hope would be to witness the trend data decrease, which would allow us to open schools for in-person instruction (utilizing our hybrid model to start)."