Seaford Mayor David Genshaw, Dr. Corey Miklus, Seaford School District Superintendent and Penny Short, President Nanticoke Memorial Hospital, joined yesterday to discuss COVID-19 and the reopening of Seaford Schools. Hear what Seaford School District is doing for those students going back to school and "Let's all do our part", as Penny Short says to take the necessary precautions as a community to help keep Seaford Schools open and help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
Dr. Miklus starts out by saying, "On July 30th, the district sent out a questionnaire to all families, and this questionnaire asked families to make a decision about how they wanted their child to be educated for the coming school year. And really the question was, Would you like your child to be educated in a hybrid format or would you like them to be a student who is going to receive their education 100% remotely at home."
Based on those survey results, 50% of families wanted to be remote and the other 50% wanted to go to school in a hybrid format. On August 17th, the Seaford Board of Education voted to allow the schools to open in a hybrid format for those students who selected that on the questionnaire.
He goes on to explain what this hybrid format looks like, by dividing those students into two cohorts, a blue cohort and a gold cohort. The blue cohort may attend school on Monday and Tuesday face-to-face. The rest of the week, they will received their instruction remotely. The second cohort, the gold cohort, will receive their instruction Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday remotely and on Thursday and Friday, they will actually go to school face-to-face. So each cohort will approximately received education face-to-face two days per week.
He notes transportation has been one of the major issues the District has wrestled with, and based on DPH guidance and other guidance received from the Department of Education, they can have no more than 23 students on a bus. More communication about that will come out from the schools.
Technology is going to be a major push for the District this year. Each student in the Seaford School District, will receive a District issued Chromebook. That Chromebook, will provide access to all of the work done remotely. The District is also working with families who need internet assistance.
Safety is their number one priority. All students and staff will be wearing a face masks all day. Additionally, classrooms have been set up with desks separated six feet apart. Classrooms at the elementary level, may have anywhere between three and eight students a day to ensure those social distancing guidelines.
Dr. Miklus also notes "Any child who is not feeling well in the morning, there will be a student questionnaire that each family will be conduction in the morning before school. Please stay home if you are sick and everyone in our community must work to do their part. The more we can make sure that we are wearing masks in the community, the more that we can make sure that we are social distancing, the longer our schools will be able to stay open."
Penny Short, President of Nanticoke Memorial Hospital noted the first cared for COVID patient was admitted to Nanticoke on March 22nd, and since then, they've cared for 406 positive patients through the Emergency Room, and out of that, 203 of them needed hospitalized care. To date, in over the past several weeks, they have been in the single digits with hospitalized COVID patients.
She noted how important it is for all of us to monitor our symptoms and those of our children, and if you have symptoms, you need to stay home, you need to contact your primary care physician, your pediatrician or another health care entity.
"We need to make sure that we are staying safe, doing our part. we have a responsibility to support the schools and try to help keep them open, and that is wearing our masks", Penny said.
Mayor Genshaw said "If you have questions, or any concerns, please reach out to either one of us to ask those questions, we'd love to answer those directly."