Empty halls at Lewisburg Area High School. The state Department of Health is recommending schools in Union County use remote learning only – for at least the first few weeks of the academic year.
Union County school districts revisit reopening strategies after new COVID-19 transmission rating
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Julia Agos/WITF
Lewisburg Area High School / Facebook
Empty halls at Lewisburg Area High School. The state Department of Health is recommending schools in Union County use remote learning only – for at least the first few weeks of the academic year.
(Lewisburg) – Union County is the only county in the state labeled as having “substantial spread” of COVID- 19 under the Wolf Administration’s new seven-day rate of transmission analysis.
The state Department of Health is recommending schools in the county use remote learning only – for at least the first few weeks of the academic year.
After mounting pressure to provide more guidance to school districts on how to reopen safely, the Wolf Administration is providing recommendations based on a seven-day local rate of transmission of the coronavirus. The department is labeling counties as low, moderate or substantial spread.
The Wolf Administration recommends schools consider changing their instructional models only after looking at the past two weeks of transmission.
But Lewisburg Area School District Superintendent Jennifer Polinchock said she is worried about the effect on students from switching back and forth between remote and in-person learning.
“One of the things schools do is it provides a structure and routine for students. And if that routine can always be changed on a weekly or monthly bases, that creates a lot of problems,” she said.
According to data from the state, the rural county has seen 185 cases per 100 thousand people in the past week.
Although epidemiologists have linked many cases to a federal prison in the county, the agency noted “outbreaks, regardless of the setting, pose a risk of community transmission that ultimately impacts everyone.”
The federal Bureau of Prisons said at least 18 inmates and one prison worker have been infected with the coronavirus. But a Health Department spokesman challenged that number and said “significantly more” cases are tied to the facility.
Polinchock said the additional guidance still leaves educators in a tough spot.
“If the will of the (Wolf Administration) is for schools to be remote, or a mandated hybrid model, it would be helpful if they just told us that’s what they want us to do, instead of putting us in the position to have to make public health decisions at the local level and all the ramifications of that to the community and the economy,” she said.
The district is still planning to have students return to the classroom for in-person instruction – but Polinchok says they will re-evaluate the approach on Aug. 17th when new data is released.
The Milton Area School District, which is also in the county, has pushed its start date back to Sept. 8.
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