As schools' reopening plans balance safety with education, officials left feeling they're picking 'the best bad option'

Some school officials say their districts are in a no-win situation as they draw up reopening plans meant to balance health and education amid a pandemic that closed schools in the spring and upends any hope of normalcy in the fall.

Those plans, required by state health and education officials before any district can resume in-person classes, will be imperfect, most agree, and it will be impossible to come up with a solution that pleases every student, teacher and parent.

“We have a whole lot of bad options, and we’re just trying to pick the best bad option,” said Joe Scheuerman, president of the Hempfield Area teachers union.

Recommendations released Thursday by state officials touch on everything from recess and lunchtime to hallways and buses.

Easier said than done

The basic tenets of most of the recommendations, though, come down to masks and social distancing.

Keeping students away from each other is easier said than done.

“It’s just tough to put into practice the guidelines,” Scheuerman said. “That’s a tough call.”

Schools were largely left on their own to create health and safety plans because of the “diversity of Pennsylvania’s school communities and the different circumstances related to covid-19,” said Nicole Reigelman, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education.

That includes the decision of whether they will hold in-person classes at all. Some of the country’s largest school districts, including in Los Angeles and San Diego, opted for online-only education for at least the start of the school year.

New York City schools will reopen only partially, with in-person classroom attendance being limited to only a few days a week.

Pennsylvania Education Secretary Pedro Rivera championed a hybrid approach last week. That appears to be a popular plan for most districts in Southwestern Pennsylvania that have released details of how they hope to reopen.

“If we have to take into account the best practices from both a health and public health perspective and education and public education perspective, I would say that as school districts are starting to plan today, a hybrid approach is a good model,” he said.

Getting back to class

Christopher Lilienthal, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said the obvious goal among educators is to get students back into classrooms, as in-person education is how most students learn best. The PSEA is the union that represents teachers in nearly all of the districts in the region, outside of Pittsburgh.

“Members are very adamant about that,” he said. “There are some concerns. We’re all concerned about reopening our schools, and that’s why we’re talking about it a lot.”

Health and safety, he said, are paramount.

“There’s no compromising that,” he said.

The balancing act is central as districts work to create their reopening plans: student safety, staff safety, the quality of the education, the services students need — the list goes on. That’s why it’s vital, pediatrician Dr. William Keough said, that districts engage with all of the groups involved as they outline their plans.

“Balancing all of those competing interests is important and is going to require all of us to be responsive and nimble as the virus decides what it’s going to do,” said Keough, a member of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Because the virus does what the virus is going to do.”

On the health side, there are both early research and a host of unknowns, said Keough, who co-chairs the state AAP’s advocacy committee.

Children can get the virus, and they have no different immunity than adults, he said. Although researchers have seen fewer cases in children, the testing hasn’t been focused on them, he said.

Part of that has been because of the availability of testing — Keough called the availability “mosaic at best” — and part of it has been because children have showed fewer symptoms.

“(Children) don’t seem to be the ones who are the major spreaders of this, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t spread it,” he said.

Making a game plan

While teachers are giving mixed opinions on whether going back to in-person instruction is safe, Scheuerman, president of Hempfield Area’s teachers union, said his district’s plans are among the best he has seen.

Initial plans show kindergarten students attending school on a half-day model. Smaller class sizes would be utilized for students in first through fifth grades, and students in sixth through 12th grades would attend school every other day. On days students are not in school, instruction will be provided virtually.

The New Kensington-Arnold School District, among many others, will have an online option. Parents there will receive a questionnaire next month presenting them with their options for fall schooling.

Several school board members said last week they themselves would not be comfortable being back in the school buildings.

“I don’t think anybody can feel safe going back to school,” board president John Cope said. “That’s my opinion. I didn’t feel safe — I retired.”

Cope previously taught at Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh.

Board Vice President John DeAntonio said at the same meeting he favors remote learning through at least the first nine weeks.

Superintendent John Pallone said the want is for “the largest number of students to stay active on our roll (in the building).”

“It is the intention to bring back students full time with safety protocols in place,” he said. “There’s nominal risk in what we’re considering to do.”

Lilienthal said he thinks such models will be the case among many schools. Oftentimes, districts have multiple neighborhood-based elementary schools. Middle and high schools are larger and often take in students from multiple elementary schools, meaning larger class sizes and generally more people.

There also is the issue of changing classrooms in middle and high school, he said. “Every 45 minutes,” he said, “students are spilling into hallways, passing each other and sharing germs.”

Guidance from the state suggests keeping students in one classroom and rotating teachers rather than changing classrooms. Recommendations include one-way hallways and social distance markers on the floors.

“I would have preferred additional guidance from PDE (state Education Department), but I do believe that the current guidance has been helpful,” Norwin Superintendent Jeff Taylor said.

The district is expected to present reopening plans later this month.

“While we know that in-person instruction for most children and adolescents is ideal,” he said, “we recognize that there are safeguards, precautions and safety measures that need to be in place to make our schools safe, healthy and effective for teaching and learning.”

Staff writer Brian Rittmeyer contributed. Megan Guza and Megan Tomasic are Tribune-Review staff writers. You can contact Megan Guza at 412-380-8519, mguza@triblive.com or via Twitter @meganguzaTrib. You can contact Megan Tomasic at 724-850-1203, mtomasic@triblive.com or via Twitter @MeganTomasic.