Back-to-school plan OK’d for BVA students
By CHRISTINE HAINES
chaines@yourmvi.com
On a 6-3 split vote, the Belle Vernon Area School Board voted Monday to return to school with a hybrid plan incorporating in-person and distance learning with the goal of returning to five-days-a-week classes as soon as possible.
School directors Dan Kovatch, Justin Kosanko and Michelle Callaway-Rodriguez voted against the proposal offered up by the district administration and staff in a lengthy presentation, followed by a period of answering questions submitted by the public.
It was stated in the presentation that 85% of the parents who responded to a district survey at the beginning of July had said they would be willing to send their children to school full-time if the district were in the green phase. There were some concerns, however, as to whether students would need to wear masks all day long.
Under current state guidelines, students would be required to wear masks on buses, while entering schools and during class changes, but would not have to wear them in classrooms if social distancing were practiced.
Parents were also asked for their preferences if social distancing requirements would mean restricting the number of students in the buildings. In response, 48.6 percent of parents supported two days of in-person education and three days of remote learning, 33.6 percent favored alternating weeks between in-school and remote learning and 17.8 percent said they would keep their children home to learn remotely.
Prior to the vote the board members expressed their views on the options before them.
Kosanko said that while the plan works for him, because he can work from home, it doesn’t work for families in which both parents work and it is forcing them into an economic hardship. Kosanko said the plan also ignores the will of the constituents.
“Eighty five percent of the parents want their children back in the classroom,” Kosanko said. “One parent said her special needs son took steps backward over the past five months.”
To read the rest of this story, please see a copy of Tuesday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at https://e.monvalleyindependent.com.
