Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
Students in the Bristol Township School District will be able to return to classrooms under a hybrid model.
The school board voted 6-3 Monday evening to approve the administration’s staggered return plan. School board members Christopher Harkins, Gallus Obert, Barbara Bill, Kellie A Buchanan, Angela Nober, and President James Morgan voted for the plan. School Board members Donna Kelly, Amanda Geist, and Constance Moore voted nay.
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The plan would break students into “black” and “gold” groups that would return to classrooms two days per week. Wednesdays would remain virtual, aside for select special education students who returned to schools in October.
The district will keep an all-virtual option and a seperate cyber academy going when the hybrid model kicks off.
Under the plan approved, grades pre-K, kindergarten, third, sixth, and ninth will see the hybrid model start November 23. Grade levels first, second, seventh, and tenth will start November 30, and grades fourth, fifth, eighth, eleventh, and twelfth will start December 7.
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A parent survey showed last week that 66 percent of parents wanted a hybrid model and 33 percent wanted to keep students on a virtual model. A small number of parents said they enrolled their students in the cyber academy.
The school district previously voted down returning the majority of students to classrooms. In the wake of their previous decision, parents protested outside the administration building in Levittown late last month.
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The presentation to the school board by administration on Monday showed Bucks County had substantial COVID-19 spread as cases spike. The Pennsylvania Department of Education suggested that districts transition to full remote learning until case rates decline.
The nearby Bristol Borough and Neshaminy school districts have returned students under a hybrid model.
Bucks County officials have not called for schools to go all virtual, but districts have been able to make their own calls based on case numbers. Last week, Bucks County Health Department Director Dr. David Damsker said there had not been widespread COVID-19 transmission in the county’s schools.
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