Woodland Hills pushes back in-person classes another month

The Woodland Hills School District has pushed back the start of in-person classes for another month, district officials said this week.

Superintendent James P. Harris wrote in a letter to parents on Tuesday the in-person return hinges on data from Johns Hopkins University. Students can return to school once data from the university’s Coronavirus Resource Center shows a decline for Allegheny County’s 14-day case count.

Harris said officials will reevaluate those numbers in mid-October.

“To have a successful return to school I implore you all to please follow the recommended CDC guidelines to limit personal exposure to the covid-19 virus,” he wrote. “If you are exposed please get tested and quarantine.”

Once the schools open for in-person classes, Woodland Hills will operate on a hybrid model, according to the reopening plan laid out over the summer. Students will go to school either Monday and Thursday, or Tuesday and Friday. On the other three days of the week, they will be learning virtually from home. Students who prefer not to return to the building can continue studying entirely online.

In Butler County’s Seneca Valley School District, officials voted this week to return to the classroom five days a week for students who are attending in-person classes.

The district introduced three options for students to attend classes that vary depending upon the stage the district is in – red, yellow or green. The move to the green phase spurred the return to five-day-a-week instruction.

The school in August resumed classes in its yellow phase, meaning students who elected to have in-person instruction would go to school two days a week – two cohorts attending either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. The extra time before moving to five days a week was needed to “procure cleaning and safety supplies and institute a phased opening of our doors,” according to the district’s website.

Students still have the option to attend classes fully remotely.

The change to five days a week begins Oct. 5.