(Editor’s note: An article in Tuesday’s edition covered this topic but was based on outdated information.)

Coudersport Area School District is ready to welcome students for fall 2020, while implementing plans to cover any potential COVID-19 surges that would result in school shutdown.

The first day of school for Coudersport is Aug. 31, not Aug. 24 as previously reported in The Era.

“The first day of school was pushed back a week. That was done to give teachers an opportunity to have more professional development days to work on their blended learning platforms,” said Drew Kyle, Coudersport Area School District superintendent.

Coudersport parents who have reached out to the district have sought reassurance that the new school year will look similar to those in years past.

“For the most part, our parents just want to be back in brick and mortar. They want their kids here, connected with our teachers. They want to maintain that community feel that we have here at Coudersport,” Kyle said. He explained the administration, teachers and staff have been hard at work creating a plan to provide students and their parents with a safe environment that allows for that connection.

The district’s approach to education this year includes a focus on the use of Google Classroom in preparation for any resurgence of COVID-19. This also will allow for students who are at risk or have to undergo a 14-day quarantine to avoid falling behind.

“We are not live-streaming like some people, but we are going to use Google Classroom to provide an online platform for our students,” Kyle said. He explained that the use of the program in the classroom as well means that “if the first week goes well, and a student participates in our blended program, the (student) can come back to school and won’t miss a beat.”

The district has also scheduled six early release days — the first six Wednesdays of the school year, beginning with Sept. 2.

“We will run an early dismissal schedule, all the kids will go home and the teachers will provide digital content for them to work on. This is practice in case we go remote this year,” Kyle explained. “This is an opportunity for parents to give feedback, so if there are things we need to address, we can get it taken care of. That way, we are prepared in the event we have to go fully remote.

“Those Wednesdays will prepare our community and our teachers for what that looks like.”

Grades K-8 will be organized into cohorts. This will reduce traffic in the hallways, particularly at the middle and high school levels, as teachers will transition between classrooms rather than students and only students in grades 9 through 12 will be moving from class to class.

Classrooms may look different as well, as some furniture had to be removed to facilitate social distancing.

“There’s always going to be a little bit of struggle when you have to space kids out 3-6 feet to social distance in the classroom. Most of our classes are set up with six feet of social distance; none are less than three feet. We had to remove some things teachers are used to having, like couches or reading corners,” Kyle said. “That is worth it, in our opinion, because we want the kids to be back.”

Breakfast will be served as a grab-and-go meal, while elementary students will eat lunch on a six-day schedule. Kyle explained that half of the student population will eat in the classroom and half will eat in the cafeteria for six days, then rotate. He noted that only one class will be served in the cafeteria at a time. Meanwhile, for the high school students, lunch will be served in the cafeteria, with additional seating set up in the gymnasium to allow for proper social distancing and to maintain the lunch periods scheduled.

Student transportation will require facial coverings to be worn, in accordance with the PA Department of Education’s latest guidelines. Meanwhile, parents in the district have communicated their ability and willingness to transport students to and from school, allowing the buses to have an average of one student per seat on the various bus routes, Kyle said.

“We have and are going to publish a parent self check symptom list. We took the CDC guidelines and made a few minor edits,” Kyle said. “We are going to send those home to parents and we ask parents to monitor kids’ symptoms before school each day. The data indicates temperature checks are a largely unreliable tool to diagnose people who potentially have COVID; the thermometers are not super reliable and people taking temperatures are not properly trained.

“Also, we didn’t want to corral six kids in the morning and segregate them while their peers watched.”

Symptoms checks will also be done throughout the day, particularly at times when students have to travel to other classes or otherwise come in contact with students outside their cohort. Kyle explained that nurses have the same checklist and will be evaluating students whenever necessary.

Kyle, who became the Coudersport superintendent in July, previously worked for the Tuscarora School District in Franklin County. Kyle served one year as a middle school assistant principal and four years as principal of Saint Thomas Elementary. Most recently, he held the position of director of technology and innovation.

His move to Coudersport’s administration comes at a time when districts across the nation are dealing with a lot of unknowns.

“It’s been really great, people have responded really well to certain things I have done, and I certainly appreciate that. It has certainly presented challenges, but it is something I really wanted to do. I’m passionate about leadership and passionate about education,” Kyle said when asked what his experience has been since taking the helm. “With the staff and board here at Coudersport, I think we are going to be able to do some really great things for the kids and the community — despite the fact it’s in the middle of COVID and all the mess that goes along with that.

“We are going to work hard to do the best we can for the kids. I’m excited to be at Coudersport and excited about the new position.”

Kyle noted that flexibility is important, and the administration and school board are prepared to make adjustments.

“We are doing our best and we’ve talked about the fact that, as long as the pandemic is an issue, we will make adjustments to the safety plan at each board meeting, if necessary,” Kyle said.

The next board meeting is Aug. 24.