MARCH 15 COVID-19 UPDATE: 10:45 AM
Dear CR School Community-
Yesterday, Governor Wolf ordered restrictions already in place in Montgomery and Delaware Countries to be extended to Bucks and Chester Counties, starting today. The directive includes the closure of all non-essential public spaces. Essential businesses like pharmacies, grocery stores, and gas stations will remain open. This order does not directly impact our school district at this time, as we had already announced a two-week closure and had identified a small group of essential personnel who may be in our schools during the closure. Otherwise, no one is permitted to be in our schools until further notice.
While our schools are closed, we will not be providing formal distance learning. That said, tomorrow we will post a plethora of general online educational resources for our students that will be organized by grade-level band and by subject area. These online resources available to students during the closure are not required in any way, will not be graded, and are not intended to replicate in-school instruction, but rather are intended to keep students engaged as learners by maintaining or extending their learning. I want to thank a dedicated group of teachers and administrators for compiling these general resources. Again, those resources will be posted to our web site tomorrow.
It is important to note that while PDE has indicated that they will not penalize schools that fail to meet the required number of school days or instructional minutes as a result of COVID-19 response efforts, and that PDE will be providing school districts with a simplified form to report shortfalls of days/hours, we are currently awaiting additional detail and guidance. For instance, will the state require schools to make up days through June 30th before this waiver will take effect? At this point we simply do not have any certainty in this regard. And, it is for this reason, and knowing that additional closures may become necessary, that I made the decision to not enact the more specific lessons and activities at this time that all of our teachers completed this past Friday. We may still need them at some point between now and the end of the school year. Our teachers worked awfully hard on those plans, and I thank them for that.
A couple quick notes in closing:
As I noted on Friday, beginning on Tuesday we will provide breakfast and lunch to all students who qualify for free or reduced school meals. Detailed information has been sent directly to these families.
All School Board activities are also suspended for the duration of this closure.
Thank you-
Dr. Robert Fraser
Superintendent of Schools
