Deer Lakes approves return to full-time, in-person instruction

Deer Lakes School Board narrowly approved offering in-person instruction to students five days a week in a move that will eliminate the hybrid model now in place.

Following a 5-3 vote to approve to change, Superintendent Janell Logue-Belden said she would meet with administration and staff to determine when the district would begin offering full-time, in-person instruction.

Parents will need to decide whether they want their children to return to school for full-time, in-person instruction or receive fully remote instruction.

The move is in line with results from a survey the district sent to parents last weekend. Of those who responded, 65% said they preferred full-time, in-person instruction for their children, 20% preferred a hybrid model offering both in-person and remote instruction and 15% preferred fully remote instruction.

Prior to the vote, Assistant Superintendent Bobbi-Ann Barnes said the recommended 6 feet of social distancing would be sacrificed if students return to in-person schooling five days a week.

Some members of the board and Logue-Belden said there is no data showing staff members and students contracting covid from one another at school. Logue-Belden said the Allegheny County Health Department has told her on numerous occasions that it hasn’t found evidence of covid transmission occurring in schools.

“That transmission is occurring elsewhere,” Logue-Belden said.

Deer Lakes’ covid case tracker, posted on the district’s website, said Thursday there have been four confirmed cases at East Union Intermediate since Feb. 4, four cases at the middle school since Feb. 10 and 10 cases at the high school since Feb. 11.

Board members Vic Laurenza Jr., William Lupone Jr., Kristi Minnick, Sam Smallwood and Louis Buck voted in favor of offering full-time, in-person instruction, while board members Eric Bieniek, Cristy McCloskey and Larry Neidig opposed.

In addition to viewing in-person instruction as preferable to remote instruction from an educational standpoint for most students, board members who voted in favor of full-time, in-person instruction said they also weighed social and emotional well-being as factors.

Minnick said this is the time for young teens to develop independence, their social skills and their sense of self. Laurenza said he is more concerned about the students’ social and emotional well-being because they have spent so much time learning remotely.

Board members opposing the return to full-time, in-person instruction said they were concerned about the safety of students and staff, as well as about students’ emotional well-being should cases surge and the district shut down schools again.

“More people in smaller areas and close groups are going to cause more infection. We are on an uptick right now. If we vote right now to go to five days, and we put more people in a classroom, and we have more people close together, and we have more infection, we’re more likely to have more inconsistency for our students,” Neidig said.