Fox Chapel Area School District easing out of social distancing at mealtime
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Fox Chapel Area School District students will soon be able to use the gymnasiums, auditoriums, cafeterias and other common spaces they way they were intended as officials move closer to its pre-pandemic environment.
The district was using those areas to allow for social distancing during meal times.
The school board voted 7-0 March 14 to update its health and safety plan to allow more students to dine in cafeterias instead of other locations within each school.
Board members Kimberly Andrews and Amy Cooper were absent.
That means there will be fewer students eating in the gymnasiums and auditoriums. So those rooms can return to their intended purposes.
“If kids feel they want to space out, there will still be some places for them to go,” board President Marybeth Dadd said.
Additional changes include reopening water fountains for students and staff, who are still able to carry water bottles and bottled water.
Superintendent Mary Catherine Reljac said the new changes will not happen overnight. It may take a few weeks to fully implement.
“It will take a little bit of time making a transition just because there’s moving parts to it,” Reljac said. “There is furniture that has to be moved. There are procedures that need to be adjusted for students and staff.”
Dadd said the district is able to make the changes because of low covid case numbers.
Fox Chapel Area went mask-optional on March 2 after Allegheny County had least five consecutive days in low community covid transmission levels.
When the board revised the district’s health and safety plan in January, it allowed for the school district to go mask-optional in the event of low transmission levels. Masks still are mandatory during substantial or high transmission of covid-19 in the county.
“I’m happy that the numbers have gone down enough in the county and the community so that we can make these changes, and give kids this opportunity to take off their masks if they choose to,” Dadd said. “I think we still have some children wearing masks, but they have the choice now.”
Each health plan update brings the district closer to its goal at the start of the school year.
“Our vision for this school year was to have as many students as we could in grades K-12 in five-day per week learning in person, and to have all the typical things that you have in a school year,” Reljac said. “Clubs, activities, sports, events, special days and that’s how we came into this school year.
“Our vision was to come back to school and experience everything that is Fox Chapel Area with our students, as well as to reignite relationships and to reconnect with each other student to student, student to staff, staff to staff and staff to student.
The updated health and safety plan was posted on the district’s website, fcasd.edu, as an agenda attachment.