Mt. Pleasant Area students resuming hybrid instruction model

Renatta Signorini | Monday, January 25, 2021 10:08 a.m.

Metro Creative

Students in the Mt. Pleasant Area School District are heading back to the classroom this week after more than a month of remote learning.

District Superintendent Timothy Gabauer detailed in a letter to parents a plan that the school board approved for students to resume in-person classes Monday varying by grade level. He said parents should be prepared to adapt to any changes that would be necessitated by the number of positive coronavirus cases affecting the district.

All students will have remote learning on Wednesdays under the plan.

• Kindergartners through third graders will have in-person classes four days a week.

• Fourth through 12th grades will resume in-person classes two days a week with the rest being remote. One group of students will be at the school building on Monday and Tuesday and the second half will be there Thursday and Friday.

All students had been learning remotely since early December because of a large number of positive cases within the district, prompting school closures and staffing shortages, Gabauer said at the time.

There have been 33 cases in the district among students and staff, according to a case tracker. Student enrollment is about 2,100 in four buildings.

The seven-day average of the number of new confirmed cases of the virus has been decreasing after peaking in mid-December, according to state health department statistics. There have been about 17,500 positive cases of the virus in Westmoreland County since March and about 80,000 negative cases as of Monday. The death toll stands at 571.