Dear School District of Philadelphia Families and Staff,

For each new week, all schools will provide in-person learning for students unless staffing challenges or COVID-19 conditions require a shift to virtual learning for everyone’s safety. Based on this afternoon’s data review and with safety as our highest priority, at this time 8 schools will provide virtual learning for students next week, Tuesday, January 18th through Friday, January 21st, 2022.  As a reminder, all School District schools and offices will be closed on Monday, January 17 in recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The eightschools that will be virtual for students are as follows:

• • Allen M. Stearne School
  • Delaplaine McDaniel School
  • Gateway To College(CCP is virtual until mid-Feb)
  • Joseph Pennell School
  • Northeast High School EOP (virtual thru Jan. 22 as recommended by PDPH)
  • Northeast High School (virtual thru Jan. 22 as recommended by PDPH)
  • Ombudsman Northwest Accelerated
  • Roosevelt Elementary School

Principals and teachers will be contacting students and families directly with more information about virtual classes. Staff at these schools are still expected to report to work in person unless they are ill, self-isolating or quarantining due to COVID testing or exposure, or have an approved leave. Please note: this excludes Northeast HS & EOP which is 100% virtual for students and staff.

We are committed to using the most current staffing data to inform school-by-school decisions, and sharing those decisions as quickly as possible so our families and staff can plan accordingly. Our schedule for updating you about any other schools that will need to provide virtual learning for students next week will change slightly due to the holiday weekend. We will share another update about next week by 10 p.m. this evening, and again by 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Monday. You can find the up-to-date list of schools at philasd.org/covidupdates.

Please know that we continue to do everything we can to safely keep our schools open as consistently as possible. We are hopeful that Philadelphia will be approaching the end of the Omicron surge soon, and we can return to a consistent in-person learning experience for all of our young people. Until then, conditions may continue to change quickly. We ask that you remain flexible and prepare for the possibility of virtual learning at any time.

We’re all in this together, and together we can get through this.

With appreciation,

Dr. William Hite
Superintendent