A group of parents have petitioned Palmerton Area School District to get students back in school full time.

The petition, found on www.change.org and created by Stacey Connell and Tara Shollenberger, received over 400 signatures as of Tuesday.

“Our COVID-19 numbers continue to drop,” the petition states. “Vaccination rates are improving but we still are not allowed to have our children in school full time. Getting back into the classroom is necessary for our children’s mental health.”

Palmerton parents currently have four options: a hybrid model where most children attend school in person two days per week and participate virtually for the other three; full five-day virtual instruction, the in-house Blue Bombers Cyber Academy or an outside charter/cyber school.

Under its current health and safety plan, a phased return to five-day in-person instruction would begin when Carbon County’s “Level of Community Transmission” remained at the “low” level for three out of four weeks.

Carbon remained in the substantial level of community transition for the week ending Feb. 26.

At Tuesday night’s board workshop, director Earl Paules urged district administration to come up with other possibilities that would get students back in school full time sooner.

“We need to work harder to figure out how to get kids back to school,” Paules said. “Our president, Joe Biden, wants all teachers to have their first shot by the end of March. They’re going to jump your grandfather in line. There are no more excuses why we can’t get back. Our numbers came way down since January and February.”

Superintendent Dr. Jodi Frankelli said there is a regularly scheduled administrative team meeting Wednesday and she would also speak with teacher representatives to see “if there are recommended changes that could be presented at the March 16 board meeting.”

“If board is looking for the administrative team to revisit it and come up with possible options that would result in changes to the plan, we can do that,” she said.

Director Tammy Recker applauded taking another look at things.

“As things change, I think we need to change with them,” she said.

Earlier in the meeting, board President Kathy Fallow acknowledged the parents who had reached out to the district by email.

“We understand many of you are frustrated with the changes you’ve had to make during the pandemic, but I want everyone to understand the board does not run the district,” Fallow said. “Our job is to make sure the district is well run. We can ask the district to come up with possible options for returning to school in a more traditional fashion, but it is improper to assume we are the only force who make that decision.”

Fallow said she sees a misconception when leaders at the state and federal level talk about getting kids back to school.

“Our students are back to school,” Fallow said. “A lot of schools are still fully virtual. When our leaders talk about getting kids back to school, they aren’t necessarily talking about five days a week. If we are able to do that, that’s great.”

While Fallow said many schools across the country are still fully virtual, Director Sherry Haas pointed out that many are returning to a four-day or five-day per week in person schedule.

The neighboring Northern Lehigh School District voted Monday night to return students to school four days per week starting March 15 for elementary and March 22 for middle and high school.

“As long as we are taking the first step in getting things moving, I’m fine,” Haas said.