Norwin’s 5,300 students will return a hybrid form of learning — two days in-school and three days of remote instruction — on Monday for the first time in close to a month.

Superintendent Jeff Taylor said Wednesday the district will offer the three days of remote instruction in a synchronous mode with teachers instructing students in real time.

The district will have one day of in-school learning for all students by next Wednesday, the end of the nine-week grading period.

The decision comes at a time when the week-over-week percentage of new cases in the four North Huntingdon-Irwin ZIP codes has trended downward the past few weeks, with a 5.1% increase for the week ending Jan. 4. It was the second consecutive week-over-week increase of less than 10% in the area.

Norwin’s high school and middle school students have received instruction in a remote manner since school resumed following the Thanksgiving break. That’s because of the increase in covid cases and because of the high number of employees who missed school because they had to quarantine. Students at Hillcrest Intermediate and the disrict’s four elementary schools had some hybrid instruction in December before going fully remote.

“I am cautiously optimistic that we will see positive changes in our community’s covid-19 conditions which will allow us to transition back to a traditional operational model with five days of in-person instruction,” Taylor said.

Within the school district, Norwin officials said Wednesday they were notified of 16 more covid cases involving students and staff, from when the holiday break began on Dec. 22 to Jan. 6.

One employee each in the administrative building, the middle school and high school confirmed to the district they had covid.

Three high school students, three Sheridan Terrace students and three Sunset Valley students reported they had covid, as well as two middle school and two Hillcrest Intermediate students, the district said.

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