Tredyffrin Township Schools Monitor COVID For Rolling Adjustments

TREDYFFRIN TOWNSHIP, PA — Tredyffrin Township School District has seen just 14 COVID-19 cases since Oct. 12, but as cases rise all around, the district is ready to move in and out of all-virtual learning based on case counts at each school.

Most students in Tredyffrin-Easttown district schools are now awaiting the post-Thanksgiving return to hybrid learning in classroom on Thursday and next Monday. Special needs students returned to their classes Monday.

But new developments in response to rising state and regional COVID-19 metrics required TESD administration to alert everyone to be ready and flexible as day-to-day functions will be subject to COVID-driven safety measures.

The school district has more than 8,000 staff and students and has seen 14 cases of COVID-19 reported since early October.

The district alerted parents over the weekend to expect "more frequent temporary closures of single school buildings with less advanced notice for families and staff." The reason is the district will follow state mandates based on low COVID-19 numerical thresholds for each school that may require moving to all-virtual instruction.

Tredyffrin-Easttown School District Superintendent Dr. Richard Gusick on Monday issued updates on instructional models and COVID-19 case response. He explained the state of Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) has required all school districts to either move to 100 percent virtual instruction or attest that the local school district will follow state face-covering orders and state mandates for responding to COVID-19 cases during in-person instruction.

The mandates for responding to identified COVID-19 cases establish low numerical thresholds for each PA school, which may require a temporary shift to all-virtual instruction.

"TESD will be following the DOH and PDE guidelines for determining whether or not in-person instruction may continue," said Gusick. "This is likely to cause more frequent temporary closures of single school buildings with less advanced notice for families and staff."

Closures of individual school buildings will be determined by the size of the student population, creating categories of Small, Medium, and Large schools.

Small schools will move to fully virtual classes for 3-7 days if there are 2+ cases and for 14 days if there are 5+ cases.

Medium schools will move to fully virtual classes for 3-7 days if there are 4+ cases and for 14 days if there are 7+ cases.

Large schools will move to fully virtual classes for 3-7 days if there are 6+ cases and for 14 days if there are 11+ cases.

Beaumont, Devon and Hillside Elementary Schools are considered small school buildings, New Eagle Elementary and Valley Forge Elementary Schools are medium school buildings, and T/E Middle School, Valley Forge Middle School and Conestoga High School are large school buildings.

DOH and Pennsylvania Department of Health guidance indicate that once a school building has reopened after the required period of closure, the rolling 14-day period starts over again at zero, and a new rolling 14-day period will not begin again until there is a new case, Gusick explained.

There have been no new cases of COVID-19 reported in the district yet this week.

The TESD COVID Dashboard is here.

The school district's metrics and guidance for school closing can be viewed here.

"While we will do our best to provide families with as much advance notice as possible when a school must temporarily stop in-person instruction, it is possible or even likely that TESD may learn that a school has reached its threshold with little warning," the superintendent told the school community.