A year later, Plum students return to school 5 days a week

For the first time in a year, Plum students have had a somewhat normal week.

“The kids are excited,” said Matt Walling, a parent of two Plum students. He was waiting to pick up his fourth grader at Holiday Park Elementary on a warm Tuesday in March, exactly one year after Gov. Tom Wolf’s first shutdown of schools because of the pandemic.

The school district went back to an in-person learning model five days a week starting March 15. Before that, the district had offered students a hybrid option and fully remote options.

Brendan Hyland, the district’s superintendent, said there are 300 students still enrolled in the digital learning academy. Some other students have opted to utilize PlumFLEX, the district’s way of offering classes online via school-issued laptops for a period of time to be chosen by parents.

Hyland said going back to in-person instruction has always been the best option.

“We just want our kids back in school as much as we can safely do so,” he said. “We look at it as 20% more education per week, and with all the time they have missed in-person this year, we felt it was appropriate.”

He said the custodial staff does an excellent job keeping the building clean and disinfected. Students and staff will still be required to social distance and wear masks.

Walling said his children opted to stay home for remote instruction before the Christmas holiday. After the holiday, they didn’t want to go back to school, he said, because they enjoyed being around the family.

“But they’re happy now that it’s as normal as it could be,” Walling said, adding their grades didn’t slip during remote learning, but the social aspect of being around friends is great.

Tom Altieri of New Kensington was also at Holiday Park Elementary on Tuesday, to pick up his grandchildren. He said their parents work from home, so he and his wife share the duty of picking the five children up after school.

“I can definitely tell they’re excited. You do all you can over phones and computers, but there’s nothing better than interacting face-to-face with friends,” he said.

He expects there to be wrinkles to work out as the district adjusts — just like the first half of the school year when buildings underwent shutdowns as covid-19 cases spread.

According to the district’s dashboard, there have been a total of 206 covid-19 cases between staff and students. The bulk of the cases, 84, have been at the high school. There were 14 active cases as of March 16.

Plum’s return to a five-day learning model aligns with a trend in surrounding school districts to shift to more days in school. Penn Hills switched to a four-day learning model March 1. Gateway plans to switch to a five-day model March 29 with younger students and April 7 with older students.

“We know there will be ups and downs as we go throughout the rest of the year,” Hyland said. “We think we have communicated that with our families. We will take them as they come, just like we have done all year long. I am so incredibly proud of my staff for the commitment to these students. I think they have worked their tails off, and I am honored to lead this group of people.”