The Wilkinsburg School Board voted unanimously to begin the new school year with a full distance, online learning curriculum on August 31.

The vote was 9-0.

The decision was made based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data regarding the coronavirus pandemic, guidance from the Pennsylvania Department of Health and survey responses from parents, said Board president Ed Dovovan.

In a Wednesday interview, Donovan said more than half of the students’ families said they would not be comfortable sending their children back into a school building.

“Everyone on our board got behind it,” said Donovan. “We were guided primarily by looking at infection numbers and case numbers for Allegheny County and trying to dig down to see numbers for Wilkinsburg and trying to figure out what’s the safest thing we can do for our kids.”

The district administration and board will review and monitor CDC and state data and protocols pertaining to covid-19 in order to reconsider transitioning to some amount of in-person classroom learning.

Donovan said the board is hoping to be able to open up classrooms in Wilkinsburg by Halloween but that nothing is certain at this point.

“As soon as it’s safe for us to do it we’re going to make the switch. I don’t think there is any substitute for being in the classroom. I’ve talked to other board members and we all say that it kills us. We would love to be sending our kids back to school,” Donovan said.

“Right now we should be talking about ‘Did the rooms get painted? Are all the floors cleaned? Are the buses ready?’ instead of what kind of training are we going to give the faculty to make them better at teaching online.”

Donovan said when the school year begins, it will be a different scenario from when schools were forced to close in March and teachers were pre-producing instructional videos for students to watch.

“The piece that we were lacking before was the real time instruction, the part where students are receiving the information and talking about the information at the same time as the teacher is presenting it,” Donovan said.

“At least half our day will be live instruction with our teachers in their classrooms. So, the kids will be seeing them live in their rooms where they’re used to seeing them. The teachers wanted to do this,” said Donovan.

Teachers will keep the same daily schedules and there will also be small group instruction for students who are struggling in a particular subject.

In addition, there is another important difference between what the Wilkinsburg School District was allowed to require from students last spring and what students will be required to do this fall.

“We’re going to know which kids are logged on and which ones aren’t. We’re going to call the roll and know who’s present and who’s absent to put it in school terms,” Donovan said.

District Superintendent Linda Iverson said the district is prepared to tackle the learning curve and elevate the experience for students and parents.

“We are here to help and appreciate the extra patience we will all need at this time to create the best learning experience possible,” said Iverson.

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