September 6, 2021
Dear Families:
On Friday, September 3, I wrote to you explaining how the District is in need of your help due to the mandatory masking order that was imposed upon all 500 school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As a reminder, the Indiana Area School District is required to comply with the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health’s legal order. We are asking for your help and compliance at this time in order to keep our schools open. As you know by now, we have had 6 confirmed cases and approximately 60 quarantines in our first week of school (5 days).
At 4:15 pm on Friday, September 3, 2021, the District received an update from the Department of Education that reiterates the need for compliance as well as reiterates the medical exemption option for those who qualify. Click here for the medical exemption form that we will need your licensed health care provider to complete and return to your child’s principal and/or school nurse. Please work with your licensed health care provider to see if your child qualifies for an exemption under section 3 of the order. We, IASD, are not medical professionals and in accordance with our existing procedures, we will require a medical exemption form to be completed by a licensed health care provider and placed on file. By having a signed medical exemption form for those who qualify, the District meets our obligation with regard to enforcement of the order.
The District realizes that informing you of the state’s requirements on Friday of a holiday weekend was not ideal for anyone. As such, we will still require the health exemption form but will allow those families additional time to secure the proper signature and exemptions. For those families who need additional time to get the form completed by their licensed health care provider, we will require you to complete a “temporary parent exemption form” and submit it to your child’s principal or school nurse. Click here to review the form. Families will need to turn in the proper medical exemption form as soon as possible. Again, this is only a temporary measure to give families the time they need to get the appropriate medical exemption.
As previously communicated, failure to comply with the mandate places the District in an untenable position and, quite frankly, opens the District to dire consequences up to and including our insurance coverage being dropped by our provider for failure to comply with the legal order. According to the FAQ that the DOH released: “School officials who fail to adhere to the order could lose the protection of sovereign immunity and may personally face lawsuits from those who may be affected by any official’s attempt to ignore the order. Failing to implement or follow the control measures may expose individuals to personal liability under 42 Pa.C.S § 8550 (relating to willful misconduct), as well as other remedies as provided by law. Failure to implement and follow the control measures under the Order also subjects a person to the penalty provisions of the Disease Prevention and Control Law of 1955.”
If you feel that you do not want to go the route of the medical exemption as described above, we have open seats in our IDEAL+ program. Our IDEAL+ programming will vary from each level and will consist of asynchronous and synchronous options for students. Please contact your child’s principal if you would like to learn more about our cyber-learning options at the Indiana Area School District. You can also visit our website to review additional information. Some families have also expressed an interest in having their child attend an outside cyber school as a result of the mandate. The District has no other choice but to respect your decision if you feel this is best for your child. I would, however, ask families to review the academic outcomes. These outside cyber schools siphon local tax dollars from our schools and provide similar programs to that of our own online-learning options, but with the distinct difference that they have no local connection or positive impact in our community.
See below for a quick comparison of our (IASD) performance to that of some outside cyber programs. I have no doubt that there are qualified and caring people working with some incredible students attending these outside cyber schools, but we have tremendous educators and students as well. I merely want to present you with the facts so you can make the best decision for your family when examining academic options, factors, and outcomes. The comparisons below do not include our extracurricular programming, college in high school/dual enrollment, career readiness, and athletic opportunities that exist in our District and community.
Mathematics Proficiency (Source: PA Future Ready Index. No data exists for the past two years)
ELA Proficiency (Source: PA Future Ready Index. No data exists for the past two years)
Science Proficiency (Source: PA Future Ready Index. No data exists for the past two years)
If neither the medical exemption nor the move to online learning is a viable option for your child(ren), then you need to consider having your student wear a mask. We are required to enforce the mandate and cannot allow your student to be in the school buildings without an appropriate face-covering. Their prolonged absence from class could have significant negative outcomes on their learning and their opportunities.
We thank you all for what you have done already and thank you for the work that is to come. We truly appreciate you all. Visit our COVID dashboard at www.iasd.cc for additional information relating to the number of positive cases and quarantines the District is facing at the current time. With the legal order that was imposed on the schools, we are forced to comply. Please understand that we need your help more than ever and your compliance and support are greatly appreciated so that we can have our schools remain open for in-person instruction. As a community, we will get through this - together.
Respectfully,
Mr. Michael J. Vuckovich
IASD Superintendent