Palmerton Area School District set the parameters Tuesday night for a full return to the classroom for students.

According to a unanimously approved update to the district’s health and safety plan, a phased return to five-day in-person instruction would begin 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, with a 15.6% incidence rate per 100,000 residents and a 1.7% PCR positivity rate, is currently at the “moderate” level.

“We really tried to take into account all of the concerns from our parents and our teachers,” Dr. Jodi Frankelli, superintendent, said in making the recommendation. “We wanted to give all the survey results equal weight and make the best decisions for everyone involved.”

Currently, Palmerton students are 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.

To achieve the “low” level, the incidence rate per 100,000 residents must drop below 10% and the PCR positivity rate remain below 5%. When that happens in Carbon for three out of four weeks, Palmerton intends on bringing back its K-2 students first, followed by grades 3-6, junior high and high school students every two weeks after that. The full virtual and cyber options would remain for students, but the hybrid option currently offered would be scrapped.

“We have to start to plan for a return,” Dan Heaney, curriculum and technology director, said. “It wouldn’t be right for us not to. Now parents know what it does take for us to return. We wanted to spell it out and make it clear to our community what it would take for us to return.”

According to Frankelli, after the transition back to full in-person instruction started, the district would not revert to a hybrid plan, even if Carbon’s transmission level went back to “moderate.”

“We did not want to be in a situation where we would be flipping back and forth,” Frankelli said. “The district would only be implementing a more restrictive instructional model if the county moved to the substantial transmission level or if there were multiple COVID-19 cases in the district.”

The district surveyed families, and out of the over 800 responses it received, 75.8% of K-2 parents, 69.9% of grade 3-6 parents, 60.3% junior high parents and 58.6% high school parents favored a five-day return to school even knowing that 6 feet of social distancing could not be achieved outside of lunch periods.

Over 100 teachers were also surveyed, with 60.7% of them opposing a return to full in-school instruction, knowing that 6 feet of social distancing would not occur and that a full virtual option would still be available to students.

District parent Clare Papay said although parameters for a full return were put in place Tuesday, she remains concerned Carbon may never get back to the low transmission level again.

“Many schools in Northampton and Lehigh counties opened their elementary schools back up full time even though they are still at the moderate level,” Papay said. “I continue to be concerned with how differentiation is happening within the classroom. Equity is providing individual curriculum instruction to meet the needs of every student in the classroom. I have a hard time seeing how that is happening even with the wonderful efforts the teachers are making right now.”

Director Earl Paules said he fully backs the recommendations of the administration.

“We hired Jodi to do a job and she’s doing it,” Paules said. “I’m going to let the person in charge make that decision. If she says it’s time to open up, then I’m behind it 100 percent.”

While the hybrid model is still in place, Frankelli said there will likely be some changes to the way the remote learning days are structured to give teachers more autonomy in their classrooms.

“Remote learning days will include a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous instruction,” she said. “One of the biggest things we heard from parents was the amount of screen time that our students, especially our younger students, are seeing.”

Teachers will get the ability to better balance in-person and at-home learners in a manner that works best for their curriculum, lessons or activities.

“The structure of the day and student schedules may vary within buildings and across the district,” she said.

A copy of the updated health and safety plan, as well as Tuesday night’s presentation, will be posted on the district’s website, www.palmerton.org.