Fox Chapel Area School District Outlines Options With Return-To-School Plans
By: KDKA-TV's Pam Surano
FOX CHAPEL, Pa. (KDKA) -- Another school district is considering an option where students would not return to classrooms five days a week.
Fox Chapel School District outlined their options for students returning to school.
The Fox Chapel School District says at this time, all in-school instruction five days a week is just one of several options.
The district says expect plans to potentially change, again, during the next two weeks as continued information comes in from the Allegheny County Health Department.
The Fox Chapel School District rolled out their comprehensive reopening options with choices being: five day a week in school instruction model, hybrid model or all remote learning.
In the hybrid plan elementary students would be split into cohorts, attending some days of the week and not others and secondary school students would be split by the alphabet attending school some days of the week and not others.
These options had to incorporate time for sanitation, social distancing requirements on buses and in classrooms, and lunchrooms.
The district says they were planning on a five day a week in school instruction option for students until two recent meetings with school superintendents and the Allegheny County Health Department and other options had to be considered as well.
"The chief epidemiologist suggested that districts reconsider their hybrid and online learning," said Dr. Mary Catherine Reljac, Superintendent of the Fox Chapel School District.
"On the 30th of July, which is just last week, there was comment that we should continue to work with that hybrid or online learning model and that came form Dr. Bogen of the Health Department," Superintendent Reljac said.
Meanwhile, Monday was National Day of Action Against Unsafe School Reopening. A group of demonstrators outside Pittsburgh Public Schools administration offices says returning to school buildings too soon given COVID case puts students and teachers at risk.
"A recent study found that 25-percent of teachers have underlying health conditions or are at an age where COVID is especially dangerous for them," said Emily Hannon with the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
In Fox Chapel, students would need to do a symptom check before leaving for school on their given in-school instruction days and of course wear face masks.
The district acknowledged a hybrid or remote learning model would be a challenge for working parents who would potentially need to find childcare several days a week, but learning options could change again before schools begins.