Dear Pathway Families:
Over the last several weeks, my leadership team and I have met regarding our campus reopening plans. Additionally, I have been in contact with the state and local Departments of Health regarding guidance to schools during the continued spike of COVID-19 cases in the region. Frankly, their guidance was somewhat inconsistent.
Here is what I mean by that. The metrics that the CDC and Department of Health use when offering school guidance would indicate that all schools in the region, frankly, should remain 100% virtual/remote learning and closed to in-person learning. Both governmental agencies have offered additional guidance that schools, especially elementary, middle, and special education schools, should consider a phased re-opening if possible.
Based upon this mixed message, The Pathway School has chosen to move back its campus reopening date to Monday, February 1, 2021, rather than Tuesday, January 19, 2021. The shift in dates, undoubtedly NOT good news to many of you, will afford us a little more time to make some additional improvements to our campus. We are going to relocate two of our ‘functional academic’ classrooms to larger, unused rooms to promote better social distancing. We are adding wall mounted thermometers to offer hands free temperature checks for our students. We are also finalizing a contract to offer bi-weekly COVID-19 testing to all staff and all students that will be on campus. *We will be sending consent forms to families with students on campus in a week or so.
Beginning on Monday, February 1st we will return to the hybrid learning model that we used during the autumn, 2020 semester. If your student was participating in the hybrid learning model before the break, they will continue in the hybrid model upon our return to campus. If your student was participating in the virtual model, they will continue full time online virtual learning. Our hybrid students in the Emotional Support, Lower School, and Functional Academic cohort will be on campus Mondays and Tuesdays, Wednesday will remain an asynchronous day, and these students will be on a virtual/remote learning schedule on Thursdays and Fridays. Beginning on Monday, February 1st, hybrid students in the Upper School Program will be on the virtual/remote learning schedule Mondays and Tuesdays, Wednesdays will remain an asynchronous day, and these students will be on campus on Thursdays and Fridays.
A few calendar updates and reminders.
- Friday, January 15th was a scheduled noon dismissal for students and will now be a full day off for students.
Monday, January 18th is MLK Day and school is closed. Please enjoy the long weekend break. - I know how unsettling changes in plans are for everyone, so my promise to you is that, barring government mandated closures, The Pathway School will be open and endeavor to remain open for the remainder of the school year.
Thank you for your continuing support and patience.
David Schultheis
President & CEO