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Chester CountyPRESS

www.chestercounty.com

Covering Avon Grove, Chadds Ford, Kennett Square, Oxford, & Unionville Areas

Volume 157, No. 13

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

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Kennett School Board approves flexible education plan that eliminates ‘snow days’ By Chris Barber Contributing Writer Snow days will be a thing of the past in Pennsylvania schools starting in the 2024-25 school year. The Kennett School Board unanimously approved the acceptance of the Pennsylvania Department of Education directive to adopt the “Flexible

INSIDE

Education” plan at its March 11 meeting. The plan stipulates that days off for bad weather will be replaced by school work issued and carried out online. Even though he voted in favor of the directive, board member Don Kohler said, “The 12-year-old in me laments the loss of snow days,” but said he under-

stands the order will put an end to the confusion and alterations that come at the end of the school year in June when those days traditionally have had to be made up. Through a prepared illustration, Director of Teaching and Learning Heather Collins presented the plan and its details. She said parents will be

instructed to monitor their phones and social media to determine if the day is indeed a “flexible instruction day.” The students will then log in and be expected to participate to the best of their ability through remote learning. If the building closure is anticipated the day before, the student will be assigned a district laptop, charger

Oxford Borough receives grants

2023 Home & Garden Life inside this week’s Chester County Press

The life and accomplishments of Rebecca Lukens...1B

Internet. Collins did not state specifics but said, “We have a pretty good idea who those families are. We have the data. We work with those families.” Families who need help with Internet accessibility are instructed to call 610-444-2551 or email studenttechhelp@kcsd.org to Continued on page 2A

FROM OUR LENS

By Betsy Brewer Brantner Contributing Writer Oxford Borough Manager Pauline Garcia-Allen announced that the borough has recently received a number of grants. One is the Chesco Chesapeake Communities Action Plan (C3AP) Grant. The Borough was awarded a $105,104 grant through the Chester County Conservation District’s C3AP Non-Ag Implementation Program to support the borough’s stormwater best management plan projects. The C3AP outlines approaches to reduce nutrients and sediment to improve the water quality of local streams and to reduce pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay. Through a partnership with the Community of Love Lutheran Church, the Borough will implement a bio-retention wetland project on church property. Borough officials thanked the county and the Community of Love Lutheran Church and they look forward to this partnership. The borough is also receiving the Multimodal Transportation Fund (MTF) Grant. On March 16, the borough was awarded a $150,000 grant through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development’s MTF Program to support needed road and streetscape improvements along Mt. Vernon Street. In addition to the street improvements, the project will include the replacement of underground

and headset to bring home with them. On the day after, all elementary, middle and high school students will pack their device for use in school, the published instructions states. Board member Lenda Carrillo of Region A (Kennett Square) asked what accommodations will be made for students who do not have access to

Clearing the bases

Photo by Richard L. Gaw

Volunteers with the KAU Little League spent last Sunday morning preparing Stinton Field in Kennett Square for the upcoming 2023 season, which starts on April 1. Recent upgrades have included new paint, field restoration and the soon-to-be installation of a batting cage. Now in its 71st year, the League’s mission is to provide a positive youth sports environment for children throughout the Unionville and Kennett Square communities. To learn more about its baseball and softball programs, visit www.kaulittleleague.com.

To Subscribe Call 610.869.5553

Continued on page 2A

‘We do it because we want to keep the waterway clean’ Volunteers participating in the annual Red Clay clean-up help remove significant amounts of roadside trash By Chris Barber Contributing Writer Volunteers for the annual Red Clay clean-up arrived in great numbers last Saturday morning, apparently oblivious to the gray skies, cold temperatures and hovering rain showers. In fact, many of the young ones showed their exuberance throughout the event. The Red Clay clean-up has been going on for more than 30 years, always in the early spring. It is the project of the Brandywine Red Clay Alliance in Pocopson, and it is a chance for local residents of all ages to join and pick up trash in the

waters and on banks of the Red Clay Creek. “We do it because we just want to keep the waterway clean,” said Eliza Bernardini, the Brandywine Red Clay Alliance’s database and marketing director. The Red Clay Creek is a 13-mile tributary of White Clay Creek that runs through the greater Kennett Square area into northern Delaware. It has branches in Hockessin, Nixon Park, the Borough of Kennett Square and along various roadways in the region. Bernardini said the goal of the clean-up is to attract Photo by Chris Barber about 800 volunteers to the The Boy Scouts of Troop 22 hauled a disposed bike out of the Red Clay Creek at Continued on page 2A

South Street.

Over the past month, Olive Wallace, a fifthgrade student from Avon Grove Intermediate School (AGIS), has received significant media attention for an original musical composition that went viral on TikTok. Wallace, who is a musi-

cally talented child, plays the violin, the clarinet, and sings in the school choir. Olive writes music in her free time and recently wrote a musical composition for a virtual world that she created. Mimi Wallace, Olive’s mother and a teacher at

AGIS, wanted to know if her daughter’s composition could be played. Mimi turned to TikTok to see if a musician would be willing to perform the musical composition and the response that she received was overwhelming. Musicians from all over

the world shared recordings of themselves playing variations of Olive’s song on social media. Olive was able to hear her music played on the guitar, the piano and the harp, as well as performed by string orchestras comprised of music instructors and middle school students.

As Olive became a social media sensation, local news outlets wanted to share her story. In recent weeks, Olive’s story has been featured on Today.com, The Washington Post, the New York Post and other news outlets. On March 8, an Continued on page 3A