By Christine Haines
Enrollment verification forms went out electronically to parents in the Belle Vernon Area School District Tuesday, asking them to choose between full-time classroom attendance or remote learning.
“Within an hour, I had 95 responses,” said Superintendent Dr. Michele Dowell.
Responses are needed for each of the 2,400 students in the district so administrators can make plans for the second nine weeks of instruction. Knowing the number of students physically returning to the school buildings will allow the district to plan transportation, classroom configurations and cafeteria arrangements.
On Monday, the school board adopted a plan to permit all students to return to school buildings five days a week beginning Nov. 9, nearly a month ahead of the plan discussed at a work session a week ago.
The accelerated plan brings students attending the career technical schools plus those in kindergarten and first grade, eighth grade and 12th grade back four days a week starting Oct. 5. The next group of students, those in grades 2, 3, 7, 10 and 11, return four days a week Oct. 19, and the remaining students in grades 4, 5, 6 and 9 will return to school four days a week as of Nov. 2, with all students back in school five days a week Nov. 9.
Parents will also have the option of having their children educated remotely five days a week.
“We are going to have people who are currently hybrid who are going to go full remote because they don’t want their children back with all the other students full-time,” Dowell said.
With more students attending school in person, administrators Monday said it would not be possible to continue with 6-foot social distancing in the classrooms, and masks would have to be worn at all times with fewer breaks.
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