Gov. Wolf closes Pa. schools and businesses indefinitely, extends stay-at-home order

Gov. Tom Wolf extended school and business closures indefinitely and also extended the stay-at-home order in place for some Pennsylvania counties until at least April 30.

“Until now, I’ve been saying ‘another two weeks, another two weeks,’ ” Wolf said during a virtual news conference Monday. “Now I’m going to leave the date indefinite. We’re going to keep our schools and businesses closed as long as we need to keep them closed to keep Pennsylvania safe. Right now, it isn’t safe.”

Wolf said the state is working to make sure both sectors can continue on despite — and after — the pandemic: “We are working on a plan to make sure that we have a way to provide an education for the kids who are not getting the education for the next two months.”

The hope, he said, is to have a plan in place “in the next few days” and have an alternative to brick-and-mortar schools by the start of next week.

He said the economic recovery that will be needed once these times are over is already front of mind, too.

“A lot of what we will need to do is make sure that we provide businesses with the liquidity they need to get back into business — that the workers that were laid off or furloughed and still in the area can get back to work,” he said.

That plan is in the works, Wolf said, but will take time.

“We understand this isn’t going to happen with the snap of a finger,” he said.

Wolf’s move did not surprise school officials in the region, but Greensburg Salem School District Superintendent Gary Peiffer said there’s still some trepidation.

“We feel like we’re building the plane while we’re flying it,” Peiffer said. “The district has set up online learning plans and is working to distribute laptops to students who need them. However, there’s still a lot they can’t plan for without knowing when the pandemic will end — or whether it will have a resurgence come fall.”

At the Highlands School District, students this week began the transition to online learning, a move that Superintendent Monique Mawhinney said is “not ideal” but needed at this time.

“The district is as frustrated as you are with the unknown of the extended school closure,” Mawhinney told families in a recorded message. “However, it is critical that we all adhere to the stay-at-home order to the best of our ability in an attempt to save lives.”

Deer Lakes School District spokesman Jim Cromie said Monday’s announcement doesn’t impact “day-to-day learning.”

“We have been doing remote instruction since last week and it’s going really well, and we anticipate that it will continue to go well for the rest of the year,” Cromie said.

Many school districts in the region began formal distance learning programs on Monday.

“We were prepared for an extended closure,” said Tiffany Nix, superintendent with Leechburg Area School District. “We are going to keep planning and we’re going to keep educating the best way that we can.”

Carbon, Cumberland, Dauphin and Schuylkill counties have been added to the stay-at-home order, which orders residents in those counties to remain at home unless it’s for a life-sustaining reason, like getting groceries, medicine or exercising. Twenty-six of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are now under the order.

Wolf acknowledged that warm weather will bring spring fever with it.

“It’s hard being confined, I know, to one place,” he said. “We miss being with our friends. We miss being with family members, but if we want to save lives, we must continue to distance ourselves from each other.”

Staff writers Madasyn Lee and Jacob Tierney contributed to this report.