New Kensington-Arnold may go to hybrid schedule if too many students want to return to schools

New Kensington-Arnold School District will be forced to go to a full hybrid schedule if too many students now learning from home choose to come back to school next month, Acting Superintendent Jon Banko said.

Under a hybrid schedule, students would be in school only two days a week, Banko said at school board committee meeting Thursday.

One group of students would be in schools on Mondays and Tuesdays, while another would be there on Thursdays and Fridays. All students would work remotely on Wednesdays.

For the start of the school year, New Kensington-Arnold gave parents the choice of having their children in schools full time, or working from home full time. Those that did not make their choice known were made to work online for the first four weeks.

About 53% of the district’s students came back to its buildings, Banko said.

Oct. 5 is the first opportunity for students who stayed home to opt to come back to schools.

Banko said the district will send information out to families Friday about the choice they need to make.

The district wants families to inform the district of their decision by Wednesday. Banko said the district will know by the end of next week if it will have to change to a hybrid schedule.

Banko said the district is committed to following covid-19 requirements, including six feet of social distancing and wearing face masks. He suspects some families kept their children home to see if the district would do that. Since it has, those families may be ready to send their children back, he said.

If the district can accommodate all students in its buildings while following the regulations, it will, Banko said. If it can’t, the district will have to go to a hybrid schedule.

“There’s no pleasant way for that to happen,” he said. “There are going to be people who are upset.”

Board member Terry Schrock said he is concerned what that may mean for district families that sent children back to schools because they don’t have the devices or internet access for them to work from home.

The district has been acquiring more devices, including iPads that will be ready for distribution once ordered covers arrive.

Instead of the hybrid schedule Banko suggested, board member Tim Beckes suggested a schedule that would see students in schools three days a week.

”I’d rather my kids be in school three days,” he said.

But Valley High School Principal Patrick Nee said the schedule Beckes suggested would not work with the high school’s schedule.

Beckes asked about setting a limit on how many students would be accepted back, but administrators said that would run afoul of the district’s requirement to provide an education.

The situation would be re-evaluated at the end of the first nine-week grading period, Banko said.