Seneca Valley moving all students to online-only classes to help curb jump in covid-19 cases
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Seneca Valley School District students in kindergarten through sixth grade will switch to online-only instruction on Tuesday and continue with remote learning until at least Jan. 4 to help tamp down the increase in covid-19 cases the region is experiencing.
The southern Butler County school district previously announced that students in grades seven through 12 will be moving back to remote instruction during that period.
“This is not the news we wanted to share today,” district officials said in a letter sent to parents. “However, this decision was made with much thought and discussion within our leadership team and in consultation with local medical experts.”
District officials noted that the number of positive covid-19 cases has increased in the region and across the state, which has been compounded by concerns among health officials that cases may spike during the Thanksgiving break.
Pennsylvania reported 6,669 new covid-19 cases Tuesday, according to the state’s Department of Health.
There have been 4,032 positive covid cases reported in Butler County since the start of the pandemic.
There were also 81 new deaths reported statewide, all of which were from November.
Tuesday’s figures bring total cases and total deaths to 321,070 and 9,951, respectively.
There are 14 active covid cases at Seneca Valley, nine are students and five are staff members, according to an online tracker created by the district.
There also are 150 students and 21 staff members in quarantine for possible exposure to the virus.
Seneca Valley officials said stricter guidelines from the state on how schools must respond to covid cases will result in more frequent school closings and changes back to remote learning because of the size of the district’s buildings and its student population.
“We believe that moving back and forth between learning models would be more disruptive in the long term rather than moving to a fully remote model within a set period of time,” district officials said.
“As we discovered earlier this year, positive cases can and will quickly and unpredictably increase within a school and require an abrupt change to remote learning,” officials said. “We recognize this would allow for little or no time for families to prepare.”