As the COVID-19 transmission rate rises in Carbon County and the bench mark for a full return to school gets further away, the Palmerton Area School District board of directors and administration said Tuesday night it continues to strive for a greater balance between synchronous and asynchronous learning on virtual days.

“We’ve been working with the building principals in allowing teachers to have more asynchronous opportunities with their instruction,” said Dan Heaney, curriculum and technology director.

“There is flexibility in that teachers can now manage the block of time in their class however they think is most appropriate. We want to make the best educational environment for our students and want balance for families and teachers so they aren’t stressed every block.”

Since the start of the school year, Palmerton students have been offered a hybrid option, which has them in school two days per week and virtual the remaining three days; a full five-day virtual option; or a cyber academy option.

By the numbers

Two weeks ago, the district announced it would begin a phased return to a five-day in person educational model when Carbon County’s “Level of Community Transmission” remained at the “low” level for three out of four weeks, starting with the week ending Oct. 2.

The county, at that point, had a 15.6% incidence rate per 100,000 residents and a 1.7% PCR positivity rate. Since then, Carbon County’s data has gone up significantly and now stands at a 56.1% incidence rate per 100,000 residents and a 5.1% PCR positivity rate. The county remains at the “moderate” level of community transmission.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported Thursday that there were 2,063 additional positive cases of COVID-19, bringing the statewide total to 188,360.

The number of cases reported is one of the highest numbers reported since the beginning of the pandemic. However, there was a faulty data file sent to the system by a laboratory earlier this week, which prevented some of the lab results from being properly reported. Carbon County reported 558 cases Thursday, an increase of eight.

Parent survey

A survey asking parents their thoughts on a full return to school yielded over 100 pages of comments for board members to parse through. The comments, directors added, contained a variety of opinions and took no one definitive position

“I understand the concerns that we heard through the survey and through emails, but I’m also aware we have had a 70% increase in cases in the county since school started,” board President Kathy Fallow said. “In the past four weeks, one-third of all the county cases have been in Palmerton. I feel we have chosen the correct instructional model and I am comfortable staying within state guidelines.”

Parents, for the second straight meeting Tuesday, called for changes to Palmerton’s virtual learning model, asking for less screen time for students.

Amber Sugarbaker said her fifth-grade child is doing “OK” with the hybrid model, while her kindergartner is not.

“My kindergartner is excited about school and has become very discouraged with the days they are at home and it is very disheartening to see,” Sugarbaker said. “Having him in front of a computer, there is too much down time in between activities. The teachers are doing a great job given that they are expected to run a classroom and have kids participating at home at the same time.”

Another mother broke down in tears as she described the struggles her child is having.

Heaney said discussions are still ongoing within internal committees as to how to best reduce screen time and balance synchronous and asynchronous instruction.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution,” he said. “What works in K-2 may not work for 3-5 or at the high school level. We’ve already talked about changing the schedule on Fridays, when all students are virtual, to make it more asynchronous.”

Fallow said while she hasn’t observed a Palmerton virtual class this year, as a former distance learning instructor, she sympathizes with the challenge teachers and students face in this environment.

“Teaching synchronous and asynchronous at the same time is a model that is very difficult for teachers and especially for our younger students,” she said. “I know our teachers are working on this. I hope we can ask for a little more patience. It is a very difficult thing to do in terms of the resources we have available.”