State offers advice for return to school

By ERIC SEIVERLING

eseiverling@yourmvi.com

As school districts and parents prepare for an upcoming school year that is both uncharted and uncertain, Pennsylvania health and education officials have issued new guidance for state schools to reopen for in-person classes.

According to the state, it will be up to each school district to decide whether to hold classes at school buildings, at home using remote learning or a mix of both.

On Thursday, the state Department of Health and the state Department of Education released the following recommendations to school districts:

• Students or caregivers should do a daily symptom screening before leaving for school.

• Students, teachers and other staff are strongly encouraged to follow social distancing throughout the day with 6 feet of separation between desks and other seating.

• If possible, hold classes in gyms, auditoriums, other large spaces or outdoors, where physical distancing can be maintained.

• Student seating should be facing in the same direction.

• Limit student interactions by staggering class times, creating one-way walking patterns in hallways and, when feasible, keeping students in a classroom and rotating teachers instead.

• For breakfast and lunch, consider serving individually packaged meals in classrooms and avoid across-the-table seating. If meals are served in a cafeteria, sit students at least 6 feet apart.

• Limit the number of students on playgrounds at one time and encourage social distancing.

• Encourage the use of virtual gatherings, events and extracurricular activities.

Monessen School District Superintendent Dr. Leanne Spazak said the school district already has plans for the upcoming year.

“We’ve already been preparing and a lot of the recommendations we’ve already been following,” Spazak said. “We’re doing a slow start.”

Spazak said the district is having teachers trained for its remote learning platform. Students and parents will soon be scheduled to visit schools to also be trained on remote learning devices.

The district will utilize a hybrid weekly schedule involving groups of students, with 50% of students being in classrooms per day, alternating during the first four days of the week. On Fridays, all instruction will be via remote classrooms.

“We’ll do that for the first month and then we’ll evaluate numbers in the county and then move to the next stage,” Spazak said. “Hopefully we’ll be getting to the point where we can be at 100%.”

Spazak said Monessen schools will utilize thermal machines to check students’ temperatures as well as enforce wearing masks.

“If the governor has a mask order, then yes we will have to do that,” she said. “It will be challenging, but we’ll do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe.

“I know this isn’t how parents are going to want to start, but we felt this was the best way for us to move forward. We’ll just take it day-by-day.”

Charleroi Area School District Superintendent Dr. Ed Zelich said the new recommendations put a burden on large school districts.

“It’s virtually impossible to maintain social distancing in our schools,” he said of the district’s 1,450 students. “We would need four school buildings to maintain that distance. Schools weren’t built that way.”

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