Hempfield schools preparing for student return

Hempfield Area School District officials are preparing for students to return to in-person classes through the hybrid model early next year.

Students, who have been completing online instruction since Dec. 1, will return to school buildings Jan. 4, according to a letter from Superintendent Tammy Wolicki. Secondary students will follow the hybrid model of learning, a mix of in-person and online classes, while elementary students will attend in-person classes five days a week.

Students, who were to complete a week of remote learning following the Thanksgiving break, were moved to full remote learning through the new year as cases continued to climb. When that decision was made, district leaders expressed their intention of bringing students back Jan. 4.

Over the past month, covid cases have tripled, with the incidence rate for Westmoreland County — or how much the virus has spread through the population — reaching 516.5 last week. That is five times higher than the threshold of 100 state health officials set as a benchmark for the “substantial” risk category, the highest in the Early Warning Monitoring System.

If a county reaches the substantial phase, state officials suggest districts move to remote learning.

Since school started this fall, Hempfield has experienced a number of positive cases between students and staff. Prior to the Thanksgiving break there were 35 reported cases for the period of Nov. 11-25. A tracker on the district website has not been updated since that time because students have been learning remotely.

When students return to in-person classes next month, district officials will monitor the number of cases reported in each school and determine if a school must move to remote-only instruction to help curb the spread of the virus, giving time for contact tracing and deep cleaning. A decision to close a school will be made based on a 14-day rolling period.

Once a school closes for cases, that 14-day period will reset. For example, if a school closes because of a high number of coronavirus cases, the 14 days will not restart until there is another case once students return.

Another reason a school could close is if a large number of staff are quarantining after being identified as a close contact during the contact tracing process, leaving insufficient student supervision, cleaning, food preparation and nursing services.

“There were many challenges in the year 2020 due to the pandemic,” said Wolicki. “Let’s hope that 2021 brings good health and normalcy.”