***This effort is gathering support from Central Bucks parents, staff, students and community members to postpone cancellation of the CBSD Elementary Hybrid plan until January.   We are also requesting a delay in the decision date for parents to indicate their final model selection.***

Please help us keep the Elementary Hybrid program running until January.

Situation
This CBSD Pandemic Health and Safety Plan for Elementary schools IS working.  Even though elementary enrollment makes up ~50% of the district population, only ~30% of the recorded cases so far involved elementary students.

Thru Nov. 12, there was an average number of 1-2 COVID cases total at each elementary school and some schools had not seen a case yet.  None of the cases resulted in a wider outbreak at the affected schools.  This shows that the spread of the virus can be managed effectively.

However, a key pillar of the Safety Plan has been that ~25 % of elementary students elected the Hybrid schedule.  In this scenario, students attend in-person classes 2 days a week, and participate in rigorous synchronous online learning the other 60% of the week.

On Nov. 11, the district announced it would discontinue the Elementary Hybrid option effective Dec. 7 due to resource constraints.  

Parents were instructed to make a decision regarding 5-Day in-person or 100% virtual instruction by Nov. 17 in the midst of the worst wave of COVID to hit PA thus far, and this decision would remain in effect for the rest of the 2020-2012 school year.

Impacts
Shifting all Elementary Hybrid students to a 5-day Traditional schedule will increase the number of students in elementary buildings by approximately 25% on Wednesdays and ~10-15% on the other 4 days of the week.  That means more students in classrooms, cafeterias and buses.

This significantly increases exposure risks and personal contacts for students, teachers, support staff, transportation professionals and the local community one week after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and 2 weeks before Winter Holiday break.

When local COVID cases are hitting record levels and hospitalizations are moving higher, the CBSD Health & Safety Plan is already undergoing the ultimate stress test.   It does not make sense to change class schedules on Dec. 7 and add more safety challenges.

It also adds a tremendous burden to parents to quickly make this unexpected decision with significant long-term impacts while there are so many rising cases and unknowns.

Benefits of Waiting
Delaying until January 11 to implement the Hybrid changeover allows most travel or exposure quarantines from the holidays to conclude and avoids some of the worst periods of a typical flu season as well as the rising Covid wave.

There’s nothing lost and EVERYONE benefits if the decision to eliminate elementary hybrid is postponed until January.  The Hybrid plan for elementary is NOT broken - it is working effectively.  In a separate petition, hundreds of parents and staff indicated their support for the CBSD Elementary Hybrid plan and its benefits. 

There isn’t a downside to extending the Hybrid plan a few more weeks until January, as children will continue learning well through the Hybrid’s combination of in-person and virtual synchronous experiences.

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Please help us keep Elementary Hybrid running a few more weeks through the Winter Holiday Break.  This will result in thousands FEWER in-person contacts EVERY DAY throughout the district and help slow the spread of COVID in the greater Central Bucks area and it’s businesses.