Western Pennsylvania school districts prepare for coronavirus

Western Pennsylvania school districts are making plans to continue instruction in the event schools close temporarily because of the spreading covid-19 coronavirus.

“We are not in a position at this point to say that there’s a need to send kids home,” said Jenny Webb, spokeswoman for South Butler County School District, where teachers were instructed this week to prepare 10-day lesson plans that students can work on remotely in the event the district must close its doors temporarily.

There had been 12 presumed positive cases of covid-19 reported in Pennsylvania as of Tuesday afternoon, including eight in Montgomery County and one each in Philadelphia, Delaware, Monroe and Wayne counties, all in the eastern part of the state.

South Butler students in sixth through 12th grades who regularly use Google Chromebooks to complete lessons will be instructed to bring their devices home this week in the event classes are canceled, Webb said.

Younger elementary students will be sent home with hard copies of assignments Thursday.

The entire district is off Friday for a previously planned, unused snow day.

Assignments for all grade levels will be available on the district’s website, but those pages will not be activated unless school is canceled, Webb said.

“All of this is in an effort to not have to tack on any missed days to the end of our school year,” Webb said, noting that students must complete the work and it will count toward their grades.

Other districts, including Fox Chapel Area and Penn Hills in Allegheny County, are taking similar measures.

In the event of a school closure due to covid-19, teachers in Fox Chapel Area will use the first two canceled school days to prepare lessons. Remote, online instruction for students in kindergarten through 12th grade would start on the third day, according to a video posted on the district’s website.

The district will assist students who do not have access to a computer or Wi-Fi at home, according to the video.

School counselors, psychologists and other school-based mental health professionals will check in with students to meet ongoing needs.

District officials in Penn Hills are asking families to verify their contact information as teachers work to develop lessons for students in all grade levels that will be emailed if schools are closed.

In Leechburg Area School District, where many students live in rural areas without access to internet, students will receive detailed packets of work to take home, Superintendent Tiffany Nix said.

Students in pre-K through 12th grade will cleanse their hands with sanitizer when they arrive at school each day. An adult will be at the building entrance to supervise the process, Nix said.

School district closures will be decided on a case-by-case basis by administrators in conjunction with local or state health departments, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

“A decision to close a school or school district would be made by its locally elected school board or the local or state health departments,” the health department said in a statement. “The Pennsylvania Department of Education would encourage districts to work with heath officials to discuss the need for disease control actions, including a possible school closure.”

The Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which supports school districts across the county, is assisting districts by sharing information from the county health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Aaron Skrbin, the unit’s director of safety and security.

At this point, most districts seem to be prepared and there are no concerns about a shortage of cleaning supplies, Skrbin said.

“The most important thing is that if (students or employees are) sick, stay home,” Skrbin said.

Some districts could face a shortage of substitute teachers if staff members need to be quarantined, he said.

Citing an “abundance of caution,” five schools in the Central Bucks School District closed March 6 after individuals in the district near Philadelphia were exposed to a confirmed case of covid-19. They reopened on March 9.

Five other public and private schools in the eastern part of the state have experienced closures, according to a tally maintained by national education news outlet Education Week.

“We would not want schools to participate in athletics if they had confirmed cases of coronavirus in their school,” said Amy Scheuneman, the WPIAL’s associate executive director. “There is a deadline for completing section schedules provided by the WPIAL, and schools would have the flexibility of rescheduling events if they were closed for a period of time.”

Spring high school sports now in season include track and field, boys tennis, boys volleyball, baseball, softball and lacrosse.

Two employees in Steel Valley School District, which serves Homestead, Munhall and West Homestead, are being monitored until the incubation period of the virus passes, the district announced Feb. 28.

Both of the employees traveled to a country where the coronavirus has been transmitted and are not permitted to return to work until they are cleared by a medical professional.