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As we return to full-time, in-person schooling, our students face many challenges. Many struggle mental health issues. Others face learning deficits. We also have a group of students who excelled in a virtual environment. As a district, we must find ways to help all of these students succeed. The district is looking at tutoring and summer school to help students catch back up. Our past focus on professional development for social/emotional learning will help teachers/staff respond to students with mental health needs—as will our investments in Communities in Schools (though more may be needed). It's also my hope that we can improve our on-going virtual academy for students who choose that option.

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I believe that actually following the CDC guidelines is important. Our children pose no threat and should be back to school five days a week. If you feel sick then you should be allowed to login and do remote learning until you feel better and can return to in-person learning. This past year has caused more damage to our children then the virus.

Currently, safely returning students to live instruction is at the forefront of the minds of many in our community. In East Penn, our recent progress in this area marks the first of many steps forward. While recognizing this progress, we must also remain focused and vigilant on the task still at hand. Returning to traditional instruction cannot preclude us from examining the lingering impacts to student mental, physical, and academic health. Our conversations must include strategies to: 1) identify areas of critical learning loss; 2) meet the academic, social, and mental health needs of students; 3) address resource inequities and barriers to a well-rounded education; and 4) use data that will inform stakeholders of progress in these areas.

I am in favor of re-opening schools as soon as it is safe and prudent to do so. This decision must consider the pain and loss felt by our students and families. I don’t know that we should return to the “old normal” – we have the opportunity to learn from this pandemic about flexibility in education, facing challenges as a community, and providing a 21st-century education to ALL students and families without losing those who lack economic & technological resources. This requires a district to be proactively and boldly inclusive and innovative, to see students more as investments in the future than as standardized test-takers. I hope to help foster more open-ended, problem and project-based curricular opportunities for East Penn students.

It is critical right now to prioritize academic skill remediation and continuation, as well as provide mental health resources to our students. It's also imperative that we continue to comply with the recommendations of the CDC, and PA Dept. of Health. The recommendations are constantly changing and the district's policies need to adapt to align with them.

I have voiced to the administration the need to prioritize the expansion of mental health providers in our elementary buildings, like we had in middle schools last year and the high school previously. We need to continue to update technology and programs to better reach our students when the need to learn from home arises. I have advocated to increase safe student social activities.