Still wary about the trajectory of positive COVID-19 cases in Erie County, and following the recommendations of state officials, the Erie School District is postponing the start of in-person classes for elementary school students until at least through Jan. 29.
The district’s elementary school students had been scheduled to start hybrid instruction — a combination of in-person and remote learning — on Monday.
But upon the recommendation of Erie schools Superintendent Brian Polito, the School Board on Tuesday had no objections to pushing the start of the hybrid classes, including in-person classes, until at least Jan. 29.
The board met virtually in a special session at noon to vote on a district bidding policy and to discuss the status of instruction in light of the latest COVID-19 statistics.
Polito and the School Board followed the district’s policy of adhering to the recommendations of the state Department of Health and state Department of Education in holding in-person classes.
The Department of Health still classifies Erie County as having a “substantial” community spread of COVID-19, and the Department of Health and Department of Education recommend remote-only instruction for school districts in counties with substantial community spread.
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Substantial spread occurs in counties where the virus incidence rate tops 100 cases per 100,000 residents. Erie County’s incidence rate per 100,000 residents was 295.5 as of Friday, according to the state Department of Health.
The Department of Education and Department of Health also recommend remote-only instruction in counties where the positivity rate for the virus tops 10{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1}. Erie County’s positivity rate Friday was 16.8{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1}.
Polito discussed the latest statistics with the School Board on Tuesday. Though the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Erie County is declining, Polito told the board, the county still has substantial community spread, and that the cases could rise soon due to gatherings around Christmas and New Year’s Day.
“We want to have our students back in school, but we want to do so safely,” Polito said in an interview after the meeting. “We hope over the next two weeks that the numbers drop and we are able to start in-person instruction in February.”
The agreement between Polito and the Erie School Board on reopening schools in the 11,000-student Erie School District is in marked contrast to the situation in Erie County’s second-largest school district, the 6,600-student Millcreek Township School District.
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In a special meeting on Sunday, the Millcreek School Board decided to restart in-person classes this week, as planned, despite the recommendation of Millcreek schools Superintendent Ian Roberts. Citing the number of COVID-19 cases in the county, Roberts asked the School Board to delay the start of in-person classes until at least Jan. 18.
As a result of the vote, kindergarten through eighth-grade students in the Millcreek School District will go to class Tuesdays through Fridays starting this week. High school students will continue hybrid learning, with two days weekly of in-person instruction, through the end of the semester in late January.
It’s the same plan that the Millcreek School Board approved Nov. 9.
At the Erie School District, Polito’s administration initially planned to return the district’s 4,900 elementary school students to in-person classes, with a hybrid approach, in early November. The School Board, upon Polito’s recommendation, since then delayed the in-person classes in response to the increase in COVID-19 cases.
All elementary school students and middle and high school students will continue full remote-only learning in the meantime. The Erie School District had always planned for middle and high school students to start in-person learning in the spring at the earliest.
The district since the start of the school year on Sept. 8 has engaged in remote learning due to the pandemic. Some special education students and special education students were allowed to take in-person classes early in the school year, but the school district went fully remote as COVID-19 cases in the county rose.
Bidding policy
Also on Tuesday, the Erie School Board unanimously agreed to waive a union-friendly policy for contractors. The school directors voted in advance of the district awarding bids for the $31.2 million project to upgrade the infrastructure, including the ventilation and electrical systems, at Erie High School, built in the 1950s.
Massive makeover:Erie School District asks School Board to waive union-friendly rule for Erie High makeover
The policy, in place since 2012, requires all bidders for Erie School District projects above $25,000 to have apprenticeship programs, which are standard among union shops.
The School Board agreed to waive the policy for subcontractors on the Erie High project. The board acted on Polito’s concerns that not enough subcontractors in Erie could meet the requirement, forcing the general contractors to hire subcontractors from Pittsburgh and elsewhere, decreasing the number of bids and driving up the cost of the project.
With the same members, the Erie School Board a year ago waived the policy for the $11.4 million in renovations at the district’s Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy. The waiver saved the district about $750,000 on that project, the district’s executive director of operations, Neal Brokman, told the School Board on Tuesday.
The Erie School District opened the bidding process for the Erie High project this week. The School Board is scheduled to award the bids on Feb. 10.
Contact Ed Palattella at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.
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