Charleroi schools may reopen in yellow phase

By TAYLOR BROWN

tbrown@yourmvi.com

Though Washington County remains in the “green phase” of the state’s tiered re-opening plan, the Charleroi Area School District is going back to yellow.

Two weeks after announcing a preliminary plan to re-open schools for in-person instruction in Charleroi, several changes have been made.

Earlier this month, Superintendent Dr. Ed Zelich announced the plan for all students in K-12 to start the school year Aug. 27 with a full in-person school week.

On Monday, Zelich said the administrative team recommended pushing back the start date to Sept. 8, with partial week instruction.

“The Charleroi Area administration team has been working cooperatively with our teachers, staff, bus drivers and support personnel over the last two months to identify the safest and most meaningful approach for the reopening of schools for this coming school year,” Zelich said. “As we all know, the coronavirus pandemic situation changes daily and therefore our plan must be able to adapt as well.”

But with a spike in positive cases in southwestern Pennsylvania, plans have changed.

“Cases in Pennsylvania, commonwealth-wide, are now averaging around 1,000 per day and rising,” Zelich said. “These numbers are similar to where the state was when schools shut down in March. While southwestern Pennsylvania hospitals remain below capacity, hospitalization rates are increasing.”

Zelich said research shows hospitalization rates will surge three to four weeks after cases begin to increase.  

“Therefore, we may only be seeing the beginning of increased hospitalizations,” he added.

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