Penn-Trafford to return to in-person learning next week

After a week of remote learning following the Thanksgiving break, students in the Penn-Trafford School District will return to in-person classes next week.

School officials on Wednesday announced students will return to in-person classes beginning Monday. However, the school day will be shortened on Wednesdays, where the district will operate on a two-hour delay schedule, giving teachers additional time for preparation and planning.

Superintendent Matthew Harris said teachers are facing increased responsibilities due to the large number of students who are learning online or who transition to and from online learning due to being quarantined, testing positive for covid-19 or showing symptoms of the virus.

He said that about 27% of students are online daily.

To prepare for the switch to in-person classes, remote learning will end two hours early on Friday.

The decision to return to in-person learning came roughly a week after state health officials gave districts in Westmoreland, Armstrong and Allegheny counties until Nov. 30 to switch to full remote learning or affirm they are complying with the state’s covid-19 safety measures — a measure Harris said the district has completed by sending the required documents to the state.

The directive was announced for all public schools in counties that have experienced a “substantial” level of transmission, or the benchmark determined by state health officials that is reached when there are at least 100 covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents in a county during a one-week period.

According to the state Department of Health’s Covid-19 Early Warning Monitoring System dashboard, Westmoreland had 321.2 cases per 100,000 residents for the week ending on Thanksgiving Day, up from 249.3 for the week ending Nov. 19 and 152.9 for the week ending Nov. 12.

New covid-19 cases were announced Wednesday by the state Department of Health. According to the department, 183 additional cases were reported, bringing the county’s total to 9,643 cases.

Health officials also announced an additional 15 coronavirus-related deaths — a single-day record. That brings the county’s total to 219 deaths related to covid-19.

“We certainly understand if you are not comfortable sending your child to any of our schools under these circumstances,” Harris said. “You always have the option to choose remote instruction during this time.”