Sharon City School District
Office of the Superintendent
March 15, 2020
Dear Parents, Guardians and Members of the Sharon Community,
I am writing to you today to share the steps that we have taken to date and to update you regarding plans being made because of the current COVID 19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic.
Late in the afternoon on Friday, March 13, 2020, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced a mandatory closing of all Pennsylvania K-12 schools beginning on Monday, March 16 and lasting through and including Friday, March 27, 2020. Please note that this also means that access to all school buildings and sites is closed including playground and athletic facilities. All curricular, extra-curricular, and interscholastic events have been cancelled during this period. No practices are to be held.
We will be following PA Department of Education guidance that only essential personnel will be permitted on school sites. This will include custodial staff who will conduct a deep cleaning of each district site, administrative and clerical staff to maintain communications with staff and parents, and our technology team who will continue to support the website and phone app. Offices will be open from 8am -3pm daily for phone calls. Visits to the school site will be by appointment only.
The district is currently planning to operate a grab and go meal program for all Sharon students ages 18 and under at each elementary school site. This program is free to Sharon residents. Students will not be able to eat at the school site and must take the meal home for consumption. We are currently awaiting state approval to begin the program and will notify all families when this meal program is operational. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide adult meals at this time.
A few steps that are recommended at this time:
- If your contact information (phone number or email) has changed and not been updated, please contact the office at your child’s building and provide them with current information.
- If you have not yet downloaded our free phone app, please do so at Google Play or the App Store.
- If you do not yet have access to our Student Information System (Tyler 360) please send an email that includes your child(ren)s names and your name to eric_wenger@sharonsd.org to get set up.
- Please make use of the resources available on our website’s Coronavirus news link to talk to your children about the virus and steps you, as a family, can take to remain safe.
We are hopeful that students and staff will be able to return to school on Monday, March 30, 2020 to resume normal operations. However, if school closures are required beyond the March 30 date we are preparing resources and materials for at-home instruction.
The Sharon City School District will continue to use our website (www.sharonsd.org) and our phone app (available on Goggle Play for Android phones or The App Store for IPhone – search Sharon City Schools). Please continue to view our website/phone app for updates. We will also push out phone messages as necessary. Please note that phone messages are limited to 240 characters so they will direct you to the website for important information.
Finally, as you can imagine this is an “unknown adventure” for all of us and we ask for your continued patience, flexibility and cooperation as we work through this challenge. I would also ask that you refrain from using social media sites other than district-sponsored sites for information. There is currently much misinformation out there, some of which could prove harmful to yourselves and your families.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Calla
Michael Calla
Superintendent
Sharon City School District