Pittsburgh Public Schools considering 9-week delay for classroom learning

The Pittsburgh Public School Board is considering whether to delay in-person instruction for the first nine weeks of the school year.

Board member Kevin Carter, of District 8, introduced a resolution at the board’s legislative meeting Wednesday to postpone all in-class instruction for the first nine weeks of school and directing all students to begin the year remotely. The resolution will be voted on Aug. 4 following a public hearing next week regarding the board’s health and safety plan for reopening school buildings.

Carter’s proposed resolution suggests modifications to the district’s existing hybrid plan, which was also shared during Wednesday’s meeting. The resolution suggests a contingency plan for special education students, students of parents who are essential workers and others not able to support their child’s remote learning; as well as ensuring every student has access to a district-provided device for remote learning.

“We keep having more and more positive cases of covid, and the uncertainty of time and waiting could put families more at risk of not being prepared for what is to come at the start of the school year,” Carter said at Wednesday’s meeting.

Terry Kennedy, the board member from District 5, supported the resolution, saying she’s heard from parents, guardians and staff members experiencing anxiety about returning to buildings while cases are still prevalent in Allegheny County. She also said the board needs more time to revisit certain aspects of the health and safety plan — like the question of whether families can change their decision about enrolling in the blended in-person plan partway through the school year, if they’d like to switch to full-time online.

Pam Harbin, of District 4, also supported the measure, saying the current state of the virus in the region looks different from when the health and safety plan was first devised. She expressed concerns about transportation for in-person instruction. A delay, she said, will give the board more time to figure out a way to provide busing while maintaining safe physical distancing between passengers.

Harbin said the pandemic has shed additional light on barriers facing students within the district who have special needs, are in foster care or homeless. If the district moves forward with a complete remote learning model, she suggested, every family should be contacted in the coming weeks to evaluate their situation.

“No matter which way we do this, there are going to be families that this is going to be a real hardship,” Harbin said. “If we’re building something new, this is the time to build it with real equity in mind.”

Harbin and Sala Udin, of District 3, said the district must have a more detailed plan for remote instruction than it did in March, when schools were first closed.

“This pandemic cannot be an opportunity for us to relax our standards for reaching quality education,” Udin said, especially when it comes to students of color and special needs students who he said were already behind. “My guess is that they fell further behind during the last quarter of the spring. The fact that the pandemic is forcing us to learn from home, it is an even more important requirement that we have a robust learning methodology and system and standards so that our children do not keep going further and further behind.”

Veronica Edwards, of District 9, expressed concern over how the district would serve the most vulnerable students without meeting in person — especially while many families still don’t have computer access.

“There is just no way one size is going to fit all, and I don’t think we should talk like it is,” she said.

Details of the district’s “All In Health And Safety Plan” were also shared at Wednesday’s legislative meeting, offering new procedures for face-to-face instruction. A special hearing for public comment on the plan will be held July 29, at 5 p.m.

“While the public had an opportunity to review the more than 400 recommendations developed by our 14 subcommittees, it was important that we provided the public time to review and provide comment on the final plan,” Superintendent Anthony Hamlet said in a statement.

Officials said more than 4,000 students have already chosen to enroll full-time in the district’s full-time online option. Families have until Aug. 30 to enroll.

Under the proposed plan, those who do not enroll in a full-time online program would engage in a “blended” in-school model that mixes online and face-to-face instruction. Students using this model will follow an “AA/BB cohort schedule,” officials said, in which students designated to the AA cohort would attend school Monday and Tuesday and participate in online schooling the rest of the week. Students in the BB cohort would attend school Thursday and Friday, with online schooling Monday through Wednesday.

No students will be in the buildings on Wednesdays, which will be used for extensive cleaning between cohorts.

The district said six to eight feet of distance will be maintained between desks and between students at tables. Screens and dividers will be installed in labs and shops with fixed equipment and wherever possible, supplies will not be shared.

The district will clean classrooms, hallways and other areas daily. Bus drivers will disinfect between routes, as well, according to the release, and the district will use OSHA and CDC approved disinfectant supplies.

There will also be new procedures for monitoring the health of students and staff, including daily temperature checks and hand sanitizer stations. Parents are encouraged to “screen” their children before school. More details on the health and safety plan can be found at www.pghschools.org/ALLIN.

The district said plans are subject to change if the virus continues to spike.