Lower Merion Schools Going Fully Remote Starting Tuesday

LOWER MERION TOWNSHIP, PA — All Lower Merion School District schools will switch to gully remote learning starting Tuesday, the district announced Monday afternoon.

According to the district, the decision was made Monday afternoon.

The move to fully virtual learning affects all students, including special education students.

"We had hoped to continue in-person instruction for secondary students through the end of this week, but after reviewing our current cases of COVID-19 with the Montgomery County Office of Public Health (MCOPH), we have been advised to end in-person instruction immediately," Lower Merion School District Superintendent Robert Copeland said in a letter to the district community.

Copeland said factors that forced the district's hand included untimely contact tracing efforts, overwhelmed testing sites, and a rapid increase in positive cases among students and staff.

"Based on the information we are receiving, we can no longer say with certainty that we are not experiencing school-based transmission (linked cases) of COVID-19 in our schools," he said.

With the move to fully remote, elementary schools will continue to follow their current hybrid schedule; middle schools will follow their current hybrid schedule, with both cohorts participating virtually from home; and high schools will return to the remote learning schedule they followed at the beginning of the school year.

Copeland said respective principals will share additional details about letter days, sports, and more later Monday via email.

The decision comes after Montgomery County officials last week ordered all county schools to offer remote instruction only from Nov. 23 to Dec. 4.

"We hope these steps will enable our students to return to in-person instruction in December," Copeland said.

All schools and offices will be closed Nov. 26 and Nov. 27, for Thanksgiving break.