Penn-Trafford High School changes course, adopts hybrid reopening plan

Penn-Trafford School District has backed away from a planned full reopening next week, instead adopting a hybrid approach at the high school due to state coronavirus guidelines.

High school students will be split into two groups — “green” and “gold,” according to Assistant Superintendent Scott Inglese. Each group will attend school on alternate days, receiving online instruction the rest of the time.

Students in grades K-8 will attend school as normal. However, all students will have the first seven Fridays of the year off.

Teachers will use these Fridays to train and develop online lesson plans in order to improve the district’s remote learning program, Inglese said.

The changes were made in response to new recommendations from the state Department of Health and Department of Education.

District leaders decided to move the high school to a hybrid model because it has the largest class sizes, and therefore the largest risk for virus transmission, Inglese said.

The school board approved the schedule changes at Monday night’s meeting.

“I do understand that this is short notice as the start of school is next week, but we just received the information this past week,” Superintendent Matthew Harris said in an email to parents. “I would rather proceed with caution to ensure safety as we start the process of reopening the high school.”

Inglese said teachers will be ready when the school year begins Aug. 27.

“We were already preparing for remote instruction,” he said.

Fully online learning will be available for any students who want it, he said.

The district’s original plan for a full reopening was based on a survey of 1,626 district families, 88 percent of which supported sending their children back to school.

The district recently received several emails from concerned parents advocating for a hybrid approach, Inglese said. Since adopting the hybrid plan Monday night, it has received several complaints from parents who wanted a full reopening.

“We were put in a no-win situation,” Inglese said.

A school district staff member tested positive for covid-19 last week. Anyone who came in close contact with the staff member will need to be tested or self-quarantine before returning to work.