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All South Bend And PHM Students To Start School Year Virtually

KIMBERLY FARMER / UNSPLASH

Two more school corporations in Michiana approved back-to-school plans Monday night. Both South Bend and Penn-Harris-Madison schools will start the year virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

All South Bend students will start off with eLearning for at least the first eight weeks of class. But Superintendent Todd Cummings said virtual learning could go on longer if the data doesn’t show it’s safe for students and faculty to return in person.

“I want students to have face-to-face instruction as soon as it’s safe," he said. "That is why this plan all along has been data driven and not date driven.”

South Bend School officials plan to start looking at COVID-19 case numbers in mid to late September to start evaluating when it may be safe for students to return.

Penn-Harris Madison students will also start class virtually for at least four weeks and transition to in person learning in late October based on the 7-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases.

The earliest possible start date for in-person learning is October 5th for South Bend students and October 27th for Penn Harris Madison students, according to each school's plan.

Contact Annacaroline at acaruso@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @AnnacarolineC16

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