For Faith Constein, the possibility of returning to virtual schooling next year is terrifying.
“I was in eighth grade when (the pandemic) happened,” Constein said. “It’s almost like PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) … we knew during the pandemic there was nothing else we could do, everyone had to quarantine … now we’re out of it, we never wanted to do it again. Now, realizing it (going virtual) might happen again, we’re all genuinely terrified.”
Constein, a junior in the Antietam School District, has been attending core classes at the Mount Penn Elementary Center ever since a summer flood devastated the middle senior high school in July, causing $21 million in damage and leaving the building uninhabitable.
Since then, the district has had to navigate the hurdles of rehousing the middle senior high school’s 600 students.
Antietam’s current proposal, shared publicly early this month, involves renovating the Mount Penn Primary Center to house grades nine through 12.
Whether that plan can be enacted in time to keep high school students attending class in person for the 2024-25 school year is a matter of extreme concern for administrators, Constein and the many district families who stand to be affected.
The outcome of Antietam’s building plan is also a concern for Mount Penn borough officials, on whom it falls to determine whether the district’s rebuilding efforts comply with zoning rules.
The main issue, according to borough officials, is safety — making sure the primary center can adequately house high school students and ensuring any impact on traffic and parking won’t pose a risk to the surrounding area.
Friction between officials
The district’s push to ensure students have a place to stay, and the borough’s legal duty to carry out zoning laws that officials say were put in place to ensure safety, have caused friction among parents, students and administrators, and the borough.
That tension appeared to loosen at a meeting this month, when Superintendent Dr. Heidi Rochlin, borough officials and state representatives held a meeting assuring a room full of district residents that everyone involved was committed to getting students back to school in person next year.
Rochlin noted at that meeting that if zoning relief couldn’t be secured in time for the upcoming year, grades seven through 12 would have to move to virtual instruction until any difficulties are resolved — though she said at the time that officials believed there wouldn’t be any issues.
Rochlin walked that position back in a Feb. 14 email to Mount Penn Borough Council that makes it clear that some difficulties remain unresolved.
In the email, Rochlin took issue with the borough requiring what she called an “overreaching and extensive” traffic study to be completed before any work on the primary center could start.
Rochlin claimed the study’s requirements were so extensive that its parameters were questioned by one of the contractors the district was considering hiring to perform the study.
Rochlin noted the district is willing to carry out the traffic study but that it would have to happen alongside the planned renovations to the primary center for the building to be ready for use next school year.
She said the borough has denied the district the ability to complete the study alongside the permitting and renovation process.
“Unless I hear that you are willing to reconsider your requirement for this lengthy and extensive traffic study, I will need to share with our community that the borough’s new requirement will likely force us to move our high school students online in 2024-25,” Rochlin said in the email.
Families criticize virtual learning
The contents of Rochlin’s email to the borough have since been made public, sparking fresh concern among district parents and students.
“I’ve been in the district since kindergarten, I’ve seen the good times, the bad times, and I can attest that virtual learning during COVID was Antietam’s lowest point,” said Makenna Sawyer, a junior. “I’ve seen so many people’s mental health decline drastically.”
Sawyer said she hasn’t forgotten the excitement she and her classmates felt the day they returned to school.
“I’ve seen so much progress between students, I’ve seen them thriving in the classroom,” Sawyer said. “I’d really hate to go back to that virtual point.”
Sawyer’s mother, Jennifer Sawyer, said she was happy that students were able to return to school in person this year.
“We need a plan for the 2024-25 school year, but it just seems like we’re coming up with obstacles at every turn,” Jennifer Sawyer said. “We have the spaces. We just want to make sure that they’re available.”
Sawyer and other students are planning a walkout Tuesday to protest the borough’s zoning requirements.
“We have not been listened to, we want to be heard and express that virtual leaning is extremely ineffective,” Makenna Sawyer said.
The borough’s response
In a release Friday, Mount Penn officials denied that the borough is undermining plans to have students return to school in person.
Borough officials said the district has known about the traffic study requirement since late November, following a zoning hearing on the proposed use of the primary center.
Officials say a traffic study is necessary since the primary center hasn’t been used as a high school since 1989, and conditions have changed.
“If you’re going to expand the use of the building, then that’s when you have to do the traffic study,” borough manager Hunter Ahrens said. “We need to understand that the district can meet the requirements for parking … a traffic study is the only thing that’s going to do that by data.”
They said the borough hired a traffic engineer to review the terms first proposed by the borough for the traffic study to see if the process can be expedited.
Officials also noted the borough is reviewing a proposal that would allow the district to renovate the primary center in ways that don’t affect the number of students in the building prior to finishing the traffic study.
Ahrens said the borough is doing what it can to quicken the review process but is bound by law to conduct a proper review.
“I understand the district was in a flood,” Ahrens said. “I think council is committed to making sure kids have a place to go to school. They (the district) say they can comply with the parking requirements, and we believe that’s probably credible. But without this being presented in data and knowing for sure, we are throwing the dice on a decision we can’t afford to throw the dice on.”
A scope review of the district’s plans to use the primary center by the borough’s recently contracted traffic engineer — Christopher Williams, Bowman Consulting Group Ltd., Wyomissing — notes that a key concern is a lack of centralized pickup and dropoff operations, which causes traffic backups along Filbert Avenue, Endlich Avenue and North 25th Street.
Rochlin noted the district plans to buy or lease an early learning center on Friedensberg Road in Lower Alsace Township, which will remove the greatest volume of car traffic to outside the borough.
Families worried
Despite the borough’s reassurances, parents say they remain worried.
“Once the traffic study is over, it’s just going to be something else, to delay and delay it,” said Jessica Martin, parent of a third-grader and a ninth-grader.
Martin said parents are concerned the dispute could end with the school district being eliminated.
“That’s what we’re the most scared about,” Martin said.
For Constein, Makenna Sawyer and other students, the goal is simply to avoid being forced to learn behind a screen.
“It was just that feeling of isolation, being all by myself, not being able to see my friends, not knowing what anyone was doing,” Constein said of her experience with virtual learning during COVID, “I felt like I couldn’t properly talk to my teachers, I felt like if I had a question, it couldn’t properly be answered…you need those social interactions to build confidence.”
Sawyer noted the school year so far has run smoothly, despite high schoolers having to shuffle between the elementary center, Trinity United Church of Christ and the primary center for core classes and electives.
“We would much rather have to walk outside in the rain for three minutes between classes than sit behind a screen all day,” Sawyer said.
Borough officials noted state Sen. Judy Schwank and state Rep. Mark Rozzi plan to hold a meeting Monday between borough and district officials to mediate the situation.
Source: Berkshire mont
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