Uniontown Area School District students return to school with staggered start dates
Uniontown Area School District students will be returning to in-person learning with staggered start dates by grade level beginning Monday, slightly ahead of their projected return at the end of the first nine weeks.
School officials opted for student instruction to begin remotely for the first quarter, which ends Oct. 30. All students who want to return to in-person instruction will be back in their classrooms by Oct. 28, said Curriculum Coordinator Mindy Harris.
Students will also have the option of learning remotely with either synchronous or asynchronous learning. Students who are learning at home can either tune into their class live, or watch the recorded sessions later.
“All families have their own personal opinion about being in school or being home,” Harris said. “Some families have very much wanted their student in school, and we’re providing that for them. Some are still concerned about returning to school because the threat of the virus is still there, and we’re providing that for them too.”
As of Tuesday morning, parent and guardian surveys were returned for 1,900 of the school’s 2,500 students, and about 35% of them will be choosing to learn remotely, she said.
Students in kindergarten, 1st and 9th grades will return to school Monday, grades 2, 3 and 10 will returned Oct. 21, grades 4, 5, 6 and 11 will return Oct. 26, and 7, 8 and 12 will return Oct. 28. Harris said they chose to do a staggered start so that new procedures could be implemented effectively.
Those include temperature checks at the beginning of the day, new procedures for breakfast, lunch and walking through the halls, additional lunch periods and eating spaces, cleaning and sanitizing high-touch surfaces and sanitizing at the end of each school day. Students will be required to wear masks all day except when eating. Parents and guardians are also asked to check their students’ health every day before sending them into school.
Several teachers opted to take a leave of absence for medical reasons, and will not be teaching, she said.
Principles at each school are also filming videos to share with parents to show them how procedures will look in each building.
The school was also able to work with internet providers so that every student in the district has internet access at home.
“We’ve been able to completely transform our district into every student having an iPad and having an online learning management system, which was a tremendous task, but we did it in five, six months,” Harris said. “As the hurdles come and the challenges come, we’ve been able to make the changes for our kids. We have taken this opportunity to completely transform our district into a new way of learning, so I’m excited for the opportunity for our kids to be up to date with 21st Century learning.”