The new school year is stag amid a growing number of Covid-19 cases, are we reao send our kids back tonight?

PBS39 nine proudly presenta community conversation on k to school safety.

Now here's your host Britty Sweeney.

Welcome to the special presentation.

A community conversation on Back to school safety.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

We are coming to you live m the Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

Just a couple of months agt seemed like the new schoolr was shaping up to be a relatively normal one.

But a surge this summer in Covid-19 infection, a surge caused by the more contagis delts.

A variant of the coronavirs has changed all of that wih the new school year upon u, parents are struggling to e decisions for their childrn about vaccines, about maskd whether they can withstande prospect of school shutdows and more remote classes.

Tonight, we'll try to answr your questions.

We'll be joined by doctors, educators, administrators d parent all trying to do whs best as we begin a second school year under trying circumstances.

We are also streaming tonis show on the PBS39 and WLVT.

Our Facebook pages.

If you have a question, poa comment and we'll try to ar it.

We have a lot to get to tonight.

Just yesterday, Governor Tm Wolf called on the legislae to return to Harrisburg and pass a law mandating mask'n K to 12 classrooms since ey July.

Across the US, Covid-19 cas among kids have been on the rise.

Hospitalization rates are hitting record highs for al age groups under 50, with e most affected being peoplee 30 to 39 and children unde.

Take a look at this.

Nationwide child hospitalizations for Covid9 have increased to levels nt seen since the beginning oe pandemic.

By last week, US hospitalse treating more than 1,200 ks per day, 30% more than ther previous peak, according tC data.

While the vast majority of child cases don't result in hospitalization, the growig number of cases are causing alarm for school districts, parents and teachers who hd hoped the worst was behind.

Let's meet our first roundf guests.

We have we are very fortune to have them with us tonig.

A very thankful to have thm with us.

Dr Jeffrey Jeffery is an infectious disease special.

He is senior Vice Presidenf medical and academic affait St Luke's University Health Network.

at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

First, I want to thank youh so much for the work that u do and have done over the t 18 months.

You and the health care sys in our region have been invaluable resources for or communities throughout allf this.

So I want to get to the lol picture first, especially t relates to children.

So Dr Hagstrom, I'll beginh you this evening.

Are you seeing more child patients here in the Lehigh Valley and are children beg hospitalized at this pointn the pandemic?

No, Brittany, we have not n an increase in hospitalizations.

We haven't seen an increasn MS and we haven't had an increase in pediatric patis in our ICU with.

So what does the big pictue look like throughout this pandemic?

When was the worst of it?

For children, so to speak, throughout the coronavirus pandemic?

Well, for positive tests, t was really around the holi.

So the middle of winter foa number of hospitalizationsr Lehigh Valley.

It was really during Marchr so during those holiday pes when kids got together with families for the holidays.

So is the start of the schl year any different?

Are you gearing up for morf a surge as kids head back o the classroom?

I think it's possible we'le an increase in the percente of positive tests.

I don't know that we'll sen increase in hospitalizatio.

However, Albright and Dr J, both Lehigh and Northampton counties are designated as areas with high community transmission.

What's that mean?

Put it in perspective for .

Some trying to get a handln just how stressed our systs are right at this point hen the Lehigh Valley, the grer Lehigh Valley.

Well, it's an important pot to note that when we look k about two months ago, the amount of hospitalizationst we had for Covid patients d 12 of our hospitals was atn all-time low of about three patients.

We're now up to well over 0 and it is growing virtually every day.

We know that is a tip of te iceberg because the vast majority of people, of cou, who have Covid-19 are being treated out of the hospitad that applies to both childn and adults.

So when we have to make decisions, we have to make decisions on the fact thate are not in a reseating area right now.

In fact, to the contrary, s increasing and we're seeinn exponential increase every.

So obviously making prophes is fraught with all kinds f dangers.

But I don't think there's anybody who expects that ts is likely to recede in thet several weeks.

And we certainly have to prepare for that fact and e prepared for the worst ratr than for the best.

Sure, Dr Hagstrom, I wanteo ask you about the childreno you are seeing come in at s point.

Are those cases more severe than we saw earlier in the pandemic or are they aboute same nor experiences that e Delta variant may be more contagious?

But it's not more virulentr more severe for the childr.

All right.

And Dr Jerri, I wanted to e a look at some of the state dashboard's we're looking t now.

We're going to take a looke at the Covid-19 dashboard m the Pennsylvania Departmenf Health.

Pennsylvania has 1,600 peoe hospitalized with Covid-19, almost 475 in intensive cae here we see the Lehigh Couy data.

104 people hospitalized wih Covid-19.

29.

The excuse, the local hospl numbers were higher back in January.

But today the state reportd another 3000 plus Covid-19 infections, bringing the tl to nearly 1.3 million new s in Pennsylvania are up 97%n the last two weeks.

So, Dr Jerry, can you gives an idea of how the Lehigh Valley fits into this surge that sweeping the nation rt now?

Are we better or worse offn other areas?

Well, right now we're certy better off than some of the high hotspot areas, particularly in the South,e Midwest and to some degreee Pacific Northwest.

The problem is that when yu look at the slope of where we're going, it's going up.

Some of these other areas e actually going down.

So again, we don't know whe this is going to go.

And we obviously have to prepare for that possibiliy that it's going to be much worse.

There was another factor, Brittany, that I think is extremely important over h. Ordinarily in our area of e country, usually the summes are fairly light in terms f hospitalizations or all otr things.

That is not the case right.

What we're also seeing is a tremendous influx of paties who have non Covid disease.

In many cases, these were issues that were not takene of during the height of the pandemic and therefore goth worse.

So if you're talking aboutn underlying condition such s diabetes or heart disease,r conditions that can lead to stroke as well as many othr infections, all of these ae putting a stress on our hospitals.

And when you're adding a nr of Covid patients, which is increasing, obviously thata cumulative effect.

And Dr Hagstrom, we haven't even talked about vaccines.

Experts tell us they're the greatest protection against getting seriously ill. Do we know how many of thee surging cases are in peoplo haven't been vaccinated compared to those who have gotten those shots?

The state data doesn't tell that in these dashboards.

Well, based on the data frm other states, and even othr countries, we know that the vast majority of New infecs with the Delta variant aren unvaccinated folks.

But we also know that thoso are vaccinated can become infected and can transmit.

And it's especially true if it's been, you know, more n three to four months sincer vaccination and what the cs in children are we seeing t their parents are vaccinat, are unvaccinated?

Does that make a difference with, you know, kids gettig Covid-19?

Does that make a differencr those smaller kids who cant get vaccinated at this poi?

Sure we would.

We would love to have the younger children vaccinated because they are very prono infection and with the Dela variant even more so.

And if they are infected, y will transmit it to other family members who either haven't been vaccinated or couldn't be vaccinated or n those who are.

And then they could transmo to others who are vulnerabn our community.

Sure.

So parents who were vaccind versus parents who are unvaccinated, are you seeig their kids get covered anye or less on either side?

You know, I'm not sure.

I don't think we've lookedt the data closely enough too see that.

But, you know, the vaccineo prevent some infections evn with the Delta and even ifs been months and months that you've been vaccinated.

So I suspect that it's reay the unvaccinated that are t highest risk and where we'e seeing most of the infecti.

And in just a little while we're going to discuss Mafg policies in the new school year.

Of course, it's an issue tt has divided people, school board meetings turning into shouting matches the CDC ad American Academy of Pediats both recommend indoor Mafeg for everyone K to 12 regars of their vaccinations.

So, Dr Jeffrey, bottom lino mask's work at preventing e spread of infection and hoo we know if they do?

All right.

So there are actually two issues that are really nota controversy.

Issue number one is do vacs work and that there's no question that they do.

One can take issue on how effective they are and in certain circumstances.

But the fact that they acta absolute preventative and particularly for the most severe consequences of dise and we're talking about hospitalization and death t our statistics show at our local statistics show it.

There is no controversy associated.

The second is that we do kw that Covid-19 is a respiray spread disease that goes ot into the air by both droplt and by aerosol.

So I think it doesn't takey much imagination to figuret that if you have a mask and particularly if it's worn correctly and it's put ovee nose and mouth, that you're going to have an effect in terms of how effective your droplets or aerosol get oun the air and to also some de how it protects you.

So we can quibble into the degrees, but the fact thaty do work is really not a sut of controversy.

Dr Hagstrom, we have a Fack question from someone watcg on social media and they wt to know your opinion aboutk mandates in school.

How do you feel?

Should there be one in pla?

Should there not?

Do they work with the transmission in children?

Yeah, with the Delta variat being more contagious in my students not being vaccina, I do agree that there shoue universal asking of all the students and of course thes hope that will end sometim.

But I do believe that, you know, that the important tg is to watch that prevalencs long as we're high prevalee area, high transmission ar, we should have universal masking in the schools.

Sure.

And Dr Jerry, what about te claims that we hear that ms are ineffective or even hal because of the level of can dioxide and that some peope say they can actually cause sickness?

Can you debunk that for us?

I think that everything hao be put into perspective in terms of relative risk.

So if there are and there certainly are some studiest show, particularly in chiln that masks in some situatis can inhibit development orn have other issues in termsf psychological issues on an individual, I'm not willino actually argue that point because it is true in some situations that can be the case.

However, you always have tt risk versus benefit.

There's also no question hw harmful and you brought tht out in your opening Chalfot Covid-19 can be to both ads and children.

And what we're finding out increasingly is that even n an individual has what we l an asymptomatic or a low symptomatic infection, that there can be consequences n that individual that can be very long term.

So if you put the potential hazards of the mask versuse potential benefits of a mak versus the hazards that are known right now of Covid-1, there's absolutely no quesn that it comes out that mass are absolutely the thing t. Now, having said that, thee are certain situations whea given individual may not be able to wear a mask and wee to take that into and make accommodations, obviously a school setting or any other setting.

So you're saying here whent comes to masks, those benes outweigh the risks?

I am indeed.

All right, Dr Hagstrom, lat year we had a hybrid classs and cleaning days and manyf the cases not all of the ks were in school at the same time.

Now, that won't be the casn many cases this year.

Is there a greater risk the now and how we manage all f that?

Well, we know from experies of other school districts across the country and even other countries in Europe t if you follow the precauti, you can keep the infectionk very low.

The North Carolina ABC collaborative study was was fascinating because there e 7,000 people who were infectious while in the scl and 40 thousand who had toe quarantined.

But only 360 of those 40 thousand actually came down with Covid.

So if you're wearing a masd using good ventilation and social distancing and goodd hygiene, you can really kep the risk of infection low n the schools.

Sure.

Of course.

Masking good hand hygiene.

What are some of the others parents can keep their kids safe if they send them back into the classroom?

Well, I think, you know, encouraging people who arel to stay home I think is gog to be critical.

There's going to be multipe viruses circulating.

Remember, we've gone 18 mos without seeing quite a few things and our children are going to be seeing things r the first time.

And so I think keeping peoe home is going to is going o make a big difference or rk of transmission.

And Dr Jeffrey, I know this the big question we have h, but how do you see us gettg out of this pandemic?

What needs to happen for uo move forward and kind of gt closer to the end of this?

There are a number of thins that I think should happenn order for us to see an endo this or at least a much moe controllable situation.

As we said, there's no quen that vaccination works.

And as you know, vaccines e proved right now for ages 6 and up and very shortly we suspect that that's going e approved for a lower age g. So my major point is that f you are eligible to get the vaccine and there is no absolute contraindication,I would absolutely encourageu to do so again, whether the 80% effective or 90% effec, the point of the matter ist they are more effective thn getting the disease and prevention we know is alwas better than cure.

If you don't have the dise, you're not going to be ablo transmit.

So the more people that dot have the disease are preved from having the disease, te less transmission we're gog to see and hopefully we'lle able to put a bottom to th.

And that's what I'm looking forward to.

Now, in addition, there iso much work that's being donn better theraputics.

But I have to say that rigt now therapeutics or treatms are behind preventatives.

So until that does catch ud hopefully they'll be able o use to be used together, tn right now our best tool isr those who are eligible to t the vaccine.

I think we're all looking r some kind of end or some kd of more control over this pandemic.

So hopefully we can all moe towards that soon.

Doctors, we're going to coe back to you in just a litte bit.

Dr Hagstrom, Dr Jerri, some great information.

We're going to have you jon later in this program.

But the Pfizer, a Moderna vaccines have been approver children 12 and up.

Last week I went to a vaccination clinic to speao the kids and the parents wo were heading back to schoo.

Around 80 people came out r the second of two vaccinatn clinics, Brad Klein Middle School in Bethlehem studen2 and older as well as family members had the chance to a Covid-19 shot.

So I asked why they were getting vaccinated.

Getting the vaccine will prevent us from getting the Covid because I don't wanto get sick and my mom said hw had to get it because somef my family like have a medil history and I don't want tt too sick.

My mom was worried that I d catch cold weather and I wd like to go back to school e students like Harami Torres said they were apprehensivt first I was worried that it would hurt and that it woud affect me in a way and it didn't hurt.

It was like, really?

You see it fast.

Fountain Hill mom, Julie S, came with her three boys tt them vaccinated before they returned to the classroom.

You just felt that if theye vaccinated, maybe they canp boost other children to sa, hey, like, you know, I got vaccinated.

I think maybe you should.

Stout and other parents expressed an eagerness to t their kids back to in persn learning I'm excited.

Normalcy like just a piecef peace, basically because is been a crazy year over yea.

Socialization is a large pt of it, prepares them for kd of going out into the workforce.

So I think it's important t they go back to school.

That's why this six year Nw Morgan I'm not nervous.

I'm pretty happy that he's going back to school becaue less than 20 Juneteenth beg very it has been very lone, confusing WLVT Bristol.

So I feel him going back ts fellow students and all ths going to be something awes.

And as long as we continue protecting ourselves, gettg the coveted vaccine and ju, you know, doing all the CDC guidelines, I believe everything is going to be t fine.

Meanwhile, students parents agree that getting vaccinad could get them another step closer to normalcy as kidsd back to school, actually bg able to talk to people ande new friends a little nervos because there's going to ba lot more people because the whole school is coming bac.

But I think I'm nervous and excited because I get to se old friend that I didn't gt the first public health ves personal freedom.

It's a debate that has como a school near you.

Joining me now is Supervene McClaine.

She's a mother of twin boyn the Nazareth Area School District.

She lives there.

Nazareth had a mask optionl policy but revised that ths week to a tiered system tht requires masks on a schoolo school basis.

The mask policy is based oe number of Covid-19 cases at each school, rather than ie larger community.

Mrs McLane, thank you so mh for joining us this evenin.

Thank you for having me on.

Really appreciate the opportunity.

It's great to have you.

You're not happy about eitr of the versions of the schs policy.

In fact, you actually decid to keep your kids home leag virtually in a different sl at this point.

Yes, because I've been very proactive in attending a sl board meetings for the last four sessions, which meansr the last eight weeks I've n commenting publicly at our school board meetings and giving feedback along with numerous other parents thae concerned about the prevale of Delta in the South.

And we know that that's a forecast for what will como us if not at the beginningf the school year, but definy for the respirtory season n we have high respiratory infection rates in the win.

So we wanted to have a schl board policy that was follg the CDC American Academy of Pediatrics recommendationsd the advice of the St Luke's Hospital that we're advisig our school district and the plan that has been proposed goes against all medical ae and our school superintendt has said that he is not gog to change, wasn't going to change that until acted upy an outside force.

And we didn't think that wn appropriate response givent the local education authors and school districts have n given this ultimate responsibility of keeping r children safe, they had a t template to follow from lat year as far as requiring universal masking for the special six foot separatiod other safety parameters.

If they had just replicated that with a three foot sys, it shouldn't be a visus ise and the reason we pulled or children is we have no fain their three tiered approac.

It's much more reactive thn proactive Rachel Levine Northampton County and the incidence rates here in the county are at about 200 per hundred thousand for the lt seven days.

So that's the highest in te county and our school board seems to think that Nazares a microcosm upon itself and that what's happening in te wider community doesn't seo affect it and wants to seed accumulate in of cases that could have been easily preventable and result of g so highly transmissible.

I don't think that's a good idea to let a runaway train start and or a set of domis start before trying to intervene as Dr Jerry said, prevent is a much better strategy.

Then and then trying to intervene too late.

So my children are eight aa half.

It's twin set of twins, a y and a girl, and they are wy too young to be vaccinated.

So I know that you said I m sorry to intervene.

I just know that I want tow that you said you've been g to these board meetings.

You've been talking to othr parents.

What are you hearing from r parents?

I think there's a high levf anxiety because it doesn'tm that they're that asking ks to resume what had been dog last year but in a better format five days a week in person format, higher dens, more kids, more regular scl with a mask like they had n doing was too much of an accommodation.

It seems that parents are e opposed to it than the children.

From what I have seen fromy friends, our children tolee mess really well.

When Delta was raging in Ia and my kids heard about itn NPR, they started masking n their own their eight and a half.

They a good job when it cos to safety.

I do want to note that we d reach out to the parent grp Freedom of Choice that has protested universal mask policies in schools.

Now the co-founders declind our invitation to participe this evening.

Supervene, I want to bringu back in in just a moment, t you did mention Dr Jerry ad what he said.

Dr Jerry, why is it so important to have these preventative measures in pe before things really ramp ?

Well, your guest just put t very well that you want to prevent the fire rather thn trying to put it out once s raging and we do know thate fire is already starting, e embers are starting.

And so why wait until we actually have a major issun our hands and then say we'e going to send everybody ho?

If we can do this in advan, then because the one thingt every parent agrees with is that children do better whn they actually are in class.

That's what everybody want.

And we really feel that ths the best way of not only getting them into class but keeping them there becausea very important issue is thf you start to have a mixed population and you have soe students wearing masks and others who are not, and thn you end up with a student t introduces Covid into that classroom, those students e now not going to be able to attend class.

And that's something that I think all these parents rey need to understand.

So the best way of keepingm in the classroom, which everybody wants, is to acty use the masks and use them effectively.

And what we're saying is we don't think that this has e done from now to time immemorial.

Let's see how things are gg to be going over the next r to six weeks and then we cn make a judgment there if we start to drop back to a ve, very low level, we can make those accommodations.

It's far easier to take thm away than to put them backn later.

I want to bring Mrs MacLane back in.

I have another question for her.

She's got children who are eight years old.

They're not old enough yeto get the vaccine.

So as a parent, why was ito important for you to have e mask mandates?

I mean, you do have the che to put a mask on your chil.

Why is it so important to u to have that mandate in ple that all children wear thee masks because we all sharee same air?

I mean, as your guest just said, the a child that's unmasked and factious is gg to affect everyone around .

You will have children in school for 30 hours a week.

Can you imagine how much transmission you can get wh in with it?

In a classroom?

30 hours a week we've seens parents, all of us have norovirus spread through te school communities, spread through the communities, coronavirus, all of these s life threatening viruses tr through elementary schools.

And I think we have to take Covid risk much more serio.

I also think it's very important because we don'tt to tax our health systems.

There are 18 ICU beds, pediatric beds in the Lehih Valley if we get even 1% oe kids that contract Covid needing hospitalization, we going to be overwhelming te local capacity.

If it's an issue that we al should take seriously, we e precedence of what's happeg in Florida.

It's happening in Tennesse.

It's happening all around e south and it can happen he.

We can't pretend like thate are immune from this.

It's a global pandemic.

It's still ongoing.

It doesn't matter that pars are fatigued.

It's just one of the diffit life decisions that we're g to have to make.

And I think there are aspes of our school boards reporg and standards that weren't really following the spirif the health and safety plant really also concerned us.

I mean, it's just I don't t to be airing our school bos dirty laundry, but I reallo think that there needs to e more oversight of health ad safety plans.

They're not uniform.

They're very local and it's such a hodgepodge approach.

I mean, within one county u can have one school distrie a hotspot because every scl board is interpreting the health and safety guidelins differently.

And we're going to talk moe about the mask mandate as s program goes on.

Mrs McClain, thank you so h for your time.

Tonight and best of luck wh this new school year to yo.

I thank you.

And I just want to bring ir Hagstrom really quickly bee we move on.

Dr Hagstrom, we heard that parent right there, she ded to keep her kids home anotr year.

Are you seeing any of your patients or talking the pas of your patients?

Are you seeing this Hampton happen more often or is ite on a case to case basis?

What are you hearing and sg like every child is differt and every family needs to e choices based on their chid and what they think their s are and what would be bestr them.

All things considered.

But for most children beinn school is better.

A better learning just home schooling for some is especially with the virtual approach.

You know, there's distractr ins and they don't have the same interactions with ther teachers and peers.

So our goal as a community should be to have as many children who want to be in school be there and not tae the risk of needing to shut down any classrooms.

All right, Dr Hagstrom, thk you.

And we continue this commuy conversation on back to scl safety on PBS39.

The show will be posted onr website at PBS39 Doug.

And you can listen to a rebroadcast on the radio ts weekend on 91.3 WLVT.

It will air at nine o'clock tomorrow night, 6pm Saturdy and again at 9:00 on Sunday night.

In some of the Lehigh Vally biggest school districts, everyone will have to wear masks Allentown Eastern Eat Parkland Bethlehem staff ad students will have to maskp to start the school year, , regardless of vaccination status.

I spoke with some of the pe who helped craft that poli.

Superintendent Joseph Roy s the decision to start the school year requiring maskn grades K through 12 was mae because of the climbing nur of Covid cases in the area masking works.

So when we have everyone m, we're protecting each othe.

Roy is implemnting the top tier of the district's thre tiered mitigation program, which is maximum protectios kids return is coming Mond.

And so we'll be starting in tier three K-12 universal basking.

But after all the conversas and all the studying and talking with the experts, m convinced that the best war us to both protect kids ano have them in school five da week, he says.

The three tiered system was developed by the district't Luke's University Health Network and Bethlehem Healh director Kristen Wenrich.

So we created a tiered plan based on several different metrics, including school spread, community spread, looking at vaccination rats when Rick and boy both sayy hope the number of cases wl decline as the year goes o.

So the district can move ta lower tier that doesn't cal for universal masking.

Meanwhile, the health department continues its ph to get everyone to an older vaccinated.

We want kids to be back in school.

We want kids to be back in school five days a week.

Unlike last year.

So this is one of the best protections that a parent n do for their child.

The district supervisor of health services, Dr Kim Brandyn, says it's especiay important for student athls as well as those in band ad orchestra to be vaccinatedo they can practice together.

It's important because if you're exposed to someone o is positive in school, you don't have to quarantine.

If you're immunized.

And prior to his appeal yesterday, Governor Tom Wof had said he won't be requig masks in Pennsylvania scho, leaving decisions up to lol school districts.

Joining us now is Shameem Pakzad, Vice President of e Silicon Valley School Boar.

Thank you so much for joing us tonight.

All right.

So Silicon Valley, they hao decide to reopen schools wh masks.

It was mask optional, optil at first.

Then last week there was a decision in to revise thatn and work off a tiered apprh like many other school districts.

So talk to me about that change.

What led up to that so cloo the first day of school bee their kids are back in schl now?

Sure.

Yeah.

So like your introduction,e started this process thinkg that we have gone over the worst part of the pandemicd now we are in and sort of e getting into the pandemic t of it and everyone was loog forward to go back to norml and the plan that we have,e health and safety plan for reopening our school was drafted basically based ona plan that was more than 100 pages last year, was reducd really to about six pages.

And that was the that was e assumption.

Part of that plan was thate were envisioning those whoh to come to school with mas, they could do that.

Those who wish to come witt a mask, they could also do that.

We had a survey of our pars in June, less than 20% of e parents indicated that ther kids are going to come baco school with a mask.

80% said they're going to d their kids without the mas.

And then what you said happened, both said the nus started going up and the recommendations by the medl community also changed.

We didn't change the naturf our plan.

We still have the mask optl plan as our base plan as te default.

We instituted to mitigate strategies.

The first one was we allowd the parents who want theirs to be in fully mask classeo choose a track in which not only their children will be masks but also all of the r children in the classroom d be mask.

And then we allowed the ref the population to choose te an optional masking classes even though they could choe to be masks in the classro.

This was there was a surve, the survey went out and abt 30% of our population chooe the fully masks classroomsd 70% the other one and thene also added another mitigatn strategy.

And that was based on whatr previous guest mentioned.

While the numbers in the cy are high, we are going to e masked everyone, as soon ae numbers go down or go to a level that we feel comfort, then we are going to go toe default plan that we had.

At the moment, the only nus that we have are really the county numbers.

So we are counting on the county numbers.

But as we know, there are e little pockets of populatin the county and our school district is a small school district.

So we can make the decision based on what's happening n our community.

Sure.

Right now in our area on a county level, we're considd high transmission.

But you're saying there are some students right now ine school who aren't masking t this point?

All of the students right .

So everybody's asking right now, but it could move as h as that tier goes down.

As those cases go down, the kids could have a choice.

The kids could have a choi.

And the kids who have choso be in the mass classroom, y will continue to remain ine fully math classrooms evenf the masking mandate will be removed.

I have to ask a lot of the school districts in the ara have had to make last minue decisions.

I think that that's kind oa theme throughout this pandc last minute decisions and t minute changes.

So what went into making te changes?

You're back in school.

This came last week, less n a week ahead of school.

What did you have to do?

What did you have to put in place leading up to that?

Well, the community's not united on this.

Last year we had the commuy both in terms of the parens and also most of our teach.

The school board.

There was one goal in mindd the goal was to open the sl and keep the school open.

We are the only school in t in the in Lehigh Valley tht had as close to 180 days of school in-person last yearr those families who chose to do so.

Our elementary and middle school kids, they went to school 175 days.

We had only five days of switching to online in a precautionary decision this year.

That's not the case.

We can see the divide and e can see that there are a lf people and you know, at ths time at this point, everyoe has heard the advice of the doctors.

Everyone knows what the CDs said.

This is not the beginning f the pandemic.

I think we can all agree tt the parents are well infor.

The decision that they maky not be the decisions that s comfortable for for the ref us.

But I think it is really important for the political part of this process.

School boards are part of t to really listen to the population and give them te choice.

I believe in parents choicd I think an informed parent should be able to make chos as long as it's not impactg the rest of the population.

It doesn't impact the opern of the school.

Sure, we saw that at Bethlm is required is asking their sports programs, their football, their wrestling d orchestra to get vaccinateo that they can practice together.

What socan valy stance on ?

Are you asking those studes to mask when they're practg outside of school?

We haven't asked for vaccination.

We have made calls for vaccination, but we haven't required vaccination for anyone.

We haven't asked for the pf of vaccination.

It's really at this point e relevant piece of statistio have.

It doesn't matter whether % of our teachers are vaccind or the students are vaccind or 65 or 50 it doesn't impt the decision that we will e for the for the general operation of the school, fr the extracurricular activi.

Again, this is one of those aspects of the last minute changes that, you know, tht comprehensive plan that wed last year had really specic guidelines for Fry for for everything.

And this year we don't have that.

So we are operating based n this abbreviated version oe health and safety plan, whh the sports and extracurricr activities are also part o.

We're taking it day by days those cases go up or go do.

What about the state's puld classroom testing program o identify Covid-19 cases?

I know you said sock invals a smaller district.

Will you opt in to that orl you not?

Or has that decision been e yet?

The decision has been made.

OK, OK.

So as we head back into the school year, are there any vaccination clinics at this point planned for Silicon Valley?

Have you held any over the summer your Luzerne that wd vaccination clinics, a clic at at the school, whether e are going to repeat it agar not, that really depends oe logistics of it and whethee can pull it off.

I don't think we have any hesitation to make sure the do what we need to do to gs many people to the level of immunity that they need too go back to normal.

Mr Pakzad, some very lucrae and wonderful information u have there.

I think it's really helpfur our viewers tonight.

Thank you so much for joing adding to this program.

So thank you for the opportunity.

Students, of course, aren'e only ones heading back to e classroom.

Many teachers spent last yr giving lessons into a laptn Zoom.

Joining us now remotely frm the Poconos is Aaron Chapm.

He's an elementary school teacher and Stroudsburg and Vice President of the Pennsylvania State Educatin Association.

The state's largest teaches union.

Mr Chapman, thank you so mh for joining us.

Thank you for having Readi.

Great to have you.

Last week the PSEA urged K2 schools to require mask's o start the school year acros the state we see this issue dividing communities.

We hear it almost every da.

So what went into the decin to ask for a massive mandae and why is it so importanto PSEA members at this point?

Well, safety has been a priority for our organizatn since this pandemic started we have been urging our mes as well as school districto