Video Description:

In the blue background on the left side of the brief animation of motion of PSD logo of yellow hands open with white roof and columns, yellow roof and door come out. On the right side, Yellow lettering of “PB’s Corner October 2021”

Fade and Peter Bailey appear. He is wearing a light blue dress shirt with several shades of grey diamond tie . He is sitting on the chair. Background: There is a blue wall with few frames on the wall. The file cabinet and shelf show in the background. There is a PSD logo on the bottom right corner: Blue and yellow PSD logo with 50% opacity.

Hi everyone! Here we are in October. The best part of this month is the vibrant foliage we see around us. It’s been quite beautiful and the weather has been just right. October is always enjoyable for those reasons. I want to update you on recent happenings at PSD, In September, we started the school year in person with a current enrollment of 160 students. That number is sure to rise as the year progresses, and we look forward to adding those additional students.

We are continuing our safety protocols this year including masks. The responses have been very positive with teachers and staff making sure the students are taken care of. There have been certain situations where we have not been able to welcome the community to campus for events. Which means, Community day and Homecoming, originally scheduled for October 2nd, have been cancelled due to safety concerns. Students will still have their own activities on campus. Also, any academic related trips have been encouraged as this will help foster positive morale.

In spite of these challenges, the focus continues to be on educating our students. To support that effort, we have had several events this month. One of those events is our third annual golf outing. Correction: Its not every year as we had to cancel the event last year due to COVID. It was a successful turnout with more than fifty golfers who signed up. It was a great day except for one small rain cloud. The rest of the day was beautiful, and we raised over $35,000 dollars. I want to thank all of the sponsors and golfers who were in attendance. I hope that you join us again next year for another fun and safe day.

We hosted our back to school night where our teachers, service providers, and staff had the opportunity to interact with parents and families on zoom. The result was very positive and I want to thank all who attended. The goal this year is to have the school up and running as usual. We are still following mask and other COVID protocols, but the priority continues to be academics.

The Sparx conference titled “journey to justice” helps provide the road map to becoming a transformative school. The conference is designed to focus on donations and sharing perspectives among many schools. I represented the school on a panel discussion to talk about our experiences dealing with the pandemic and Black Lives Matter events which have influenced how we try to achieve better diversity, equity, and inclusion as a school. Panelists were able to have a good dialogue and share lots of insights. Another benefit of the conference will enable us to send our middle school students to the Poconos for a scientific learning experience as we have done in the past. We are encouraging our students to attend and bring that knowledge back to their classrooms.

We had anticipated participating in our Fall sports schedule. Unfortunately, we have had to cancel all sports including soccer and volleyball. You might be wondering what that means for the ESDAA tournament. It will still occur, but our school will not be able to participate. Other schools have also cancelled. Depending on COVID numbers, the event may or may not happen. The desire and hope is for us to have winter sports including basketball and cheerleading. We are keeping a close eye out and will update you on any changes that occur.

That sums up just about everything, but there is one more thing I’d like to share. I’m very much looking forward to meeting with the new slate of officers for the alumni association. We haven’t met since before the pandemic and are eager to meet over zoom to talk about recent updates here on campus and get to know one another better. That’s all for this month,more to come in November. Stay safe! Be well! And so long! 

End with a blue background. Top PSD logo of yellow hands open with white roof and columns, yellow roof and door. White Lettering “Pennsylvania School for the Deaf” Four social media outlet logos on the bottom of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube logos. Yellow lettering “@psd1820”