On January 5, 2021 teachers were notified that all our CSD schools will reopen in the Hybrid format on January 11, 2021. This notification came from superintendent, Dr. Dan Shelton, based on the recommendation of Governor John Carney. 

We demand that all schools within the Christina School District remain in the Remote Instruction model until the daily new cases within New Castle County trend below 100 for a 2 week average. 

Based on the current data, Delaware had 1,241 new positive cases on January 6, 2021. Percent of people testing positive stood at 28% and percent of tests positivity presented at 9.9%. There are currently 453 hospitalizations, 57 critical. In addition to these numbers, the State of Delaware dismantled the School Safety Dashboard which cited the parameters used for community safety. Prior to its deletion, the criteria stated that once the state reached a rolling average of 8% test positivity, schools would implement remote learning only to limit community spread. Upon Governor Carney’s announcement on January 5th, the dashboard ceased to exist and a new dashboard named In-Person Contagious School Cases took its place. There are no longer any state mandated criteria to guide the safety of community spread within schools. 

DPH does not offer “schools” as a venue where infection could have occurred for contact tracing purposes. Therefore, there is no valid data proving that schools are not an environment where COVID-19 is spread. In addition, in New Castle County,  the number of cases per 10,000 people for ages 5-17 is 452.5. This data proves that children do indeed get the virus and are able to spread. Since our students are maskless for both breakfast and lunch, it is impossible to guarantee safety to those around them. 

Maintaining remote instruction not only provides a consistent schedule for our youth, but also limits exposures within the community. It allows for a 5 day a week equitable education and ensures not one staff member or student  is exposed inside a Christina School District building to a potentially fatal virus. We will never know if we did too much, but we will certainly know if we did too little!