Greater Latrobe switches to remote instruction, cites county's rising covid cases

Greater Latrobe School Board has voted to switch to full-time remote instruction for all students from Friday through Jan. 18, as covid-19 cases in Westmoreland County continue to rise.

The district had most recently been offering students the options of either in-person instruction five days per week or full-time remote learning, from Nov. 16 through Nov. 25.

The board unanimously voted Tuesday to support Superintendent Georgia Teppert’s recommendation for the move to full-time remote learning for grades K-12, to finish out the current grading period.

Teppert said remote learning will “provide the best continuity of education for our students” as district officials “do our best to maintain the health and safety of our entire school community, as cases continue to rise in the substantial level.”

State health officials have set 100 covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents as the minimum benchmark for determining that transmission of the virus has reached a “substantial” level in a given 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.

Teppert also cited the need to follow state travel guidelines related to the covid-19 pandemic, noting district families “have celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday and may have even traveled out of state.”

State health officials urged Pennsylvanians not to travel to other states during the holidays. They have said those over age 11 who enter the state, as well as state residents returning home, are required to provide evidence of a negative covid-19 test or place themselves in quarantine.

The school board also voted to continue offering athletics and other extracurricular activities during the remote learning period. “Student athletes and parents have the choice whether to participate or not,” Teppert said.

Board member Dr. Michael Zorch, a retired emergency department doctor, said he would prefer that district students continue to have the option of in-person instruction. But, he said, he supports the shift to remote learning to help protect the health of district staff and help head off a potential overburden of local hospital capacity with covid-19 patients.

“In the circumstances we have got now, it is best to take a pause” from in-person instruction, Zorch said.

While acknowledging the impact of covid-19 on patients and their families, district parents Tom Gockel and Kristie Hoyle objected to the move to full remote instruction.

“I‘m fighting for my kid to go to school,” Gockel told the board. “This shouldn’t happen in the United States of America.” He argued that online instruction isn’t sufficient for student learning and achievement.

Gockel asked the board to consider keeping full-time in-person instruction for elementary students while stepping back to a hybrid model — alternating in-person and remote learning — for students at the senior high and junior high. He pointed out that the district reported only two active covid-19 cases as of Tuesday, both among staff at Latrobe Elementary School.

He questioned how Greater Latrobe can close classrooms yet still allow athletics to continue.

“I feel the exact opposite,” parent Christa Shoemaker told the board. “I’m grateful that you are taking the initiative to care about my kids’ safety,” she said, adding, “Why not shut (classrooms) down and avoid our children getting sick?”

Shoemaker said she did not object to athletics continuing because “there’s not 100 or 200 kids at a sporting event at the same time.”

School was canceled on Tuesday as an early winter storm dumped several inches of snow on area roads. Teppert said Wednesday would be an Act 80 day, with students getting an additional break from lessons and faculty preparing for the switch to teaching online.

Thursday will be a day for distribution of materials students will need to learn at home. Students will be dismissed early from lessons on Dec. 23 and will be on a holiday break from Dec. 24 through Jan. 1.

Teppert said the school board will revisit the remote instructional plan at its Jan. 12 committee-of-the-whole meeting.

The board observed a moment of silence Tuesday for senior high secretary Terri Sherwin, who died last week of covid-19 complications, according to an email Teppert sent to faculty and staff.

Sherwin served the district for 16 years, initially as a guidance secretary. At Tuesday’s board meeting, Teppert said Sherwin “loved the students and built positive, caring relationships with so many.” She called Sherwin’s loss “nothing short of devastating.”