Dear Pathway Families:
The Governor today announced that all Pennsylvania schools, which includes The Pathway School, will be closed for the remainder of the school year. This means your child will continue having online classes and related services from now until the middle of June 2020. We will send out a revised school calendar next week.
Regarding the status of our Extended School Year (ESY) Summer Program, we are planning for two possibilities: an on-campus ESY and a virtual ESY. Either way, we will be prepared to offer your student a program this summer. We hope to provide more details about our ESY Program plans in mid-May.
All-in-all, our online classes have been going fairly well. I have seen many of your students enjoy the interaction with the teachers, support staff, and their classmates! Related services are a little harder to deliver online, but everyone here is committed to making this work for you and your student.
You may be aware of recent news reports about the lack of security features in Zoom, the online meeting platform that we and many other schools are using. Zoom is a popular and good platform for virtual video meetings and classes and is used by businesses and schools around the world. Zoom has now built-in additional security features and Pathway staff use all the recommended security features to make sure our live, video classrooms are as safe and secure as possible. To date, we have no reported abuses or “bombing” incidents. We will continue to monitor this situation and will make adjustments if necessary. Please reach out to me (dschultheis@pathwayschool.org) should you have questions or concerns.
We are working on reducing the number of email messages coming from the school each day. We realize you have so much on your plate these days, and the last thing you need is a part-time job responding to emails from your student’s school. In the coming weeks, we will offer online help sessions to cover topics that can be helpful to you. Please let me know if you have specific topics you would like us to cover in these sessions. We are here to do all we can to make this situation better for you! We do have a helpline that is available to you Monday through Friday: 610-277-0660 x 444. We can and want to help to in managing your student’s schedule, academics, behaviors, etc.
Lastly, please help us by completing a very brief 3-question survey. Click the link below to complete this survey. We need your input to make our programs better—for everyone!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WHY7WHR
Enjoy your weekend. I will return next week with another update.
David Schultheis
President & CEO
To view the CDC’s frequently asked questions about Coronavirus COVID-19, click here.
Click here for more information from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)