PITTSBURGH -- The North Hills School District Board of Education voted 6-2 Thursday evening to approve Superintendent Dr. Patrick Mannarino's recommendation to move to the Hybrid operational model beginning Monday, Oct. 5.
Board members Deanna Philpott and Kathy Reid voted against the recommendation. Dr. Annette Nolish is recovering from surgery and was not in attendance.
Under the Hybrid model, students will attend school two days in-person and three days virtually.
Students with last names A-L will attend in-person on Monday and Tuesday and virtually Wednesday through Friday. Students with last names M-Z will attend school virtually Monday through Wednesday and in-person on Thursday and Friday.
"I’ll admit, the incredible job we’re doing [in the full virtual model] is making the decision to change the operational model to hybrid a difficult one but we all agree that the best place for children to receive their education is in-person and face-to-face," Dr. Mannarino said at the start of Thursday’s meeting. He added, "[Moving from virtual to hybrid] will not be easy and there will be some hiccups. This model is new to us all but we will work through any and all issues that arise and we will make this model great."
Dr. Mannarino’s recommendation was based on, among other things, the Community Transmission Rate as defined by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
The metric weighs two factors from the most recent seven day period, the incidence rate per 100,000 residents and percent positivity rate. The two statistics together lead to a county’s transmission rate, which can be low, moderate or substantial. Allegheny County has been moderate since the end of July and when in the moderate range, hybrid instruction is acceptable.
Board President Allison Mathis voted in favor of moving to the hybrid model but not without reservations.
"As amazing as our teachers are, I am concerned about them and the expectation for them to deliver education on multiple platforms at once,” she said.
Ultimately, she chose to vote based on the state's new Community Transmission Rate matrix which was released after the Aug. 6 board vote to reopen virtually.
"What has changed is our access to guidance from the state,” she said. “I will be voting tonight based on what the data currently is and not based on speculation about what it might be tomorrow in the future."
Board member Ms. Philpott was one of two “no” votes.
“The data is just not yet to a point where I am comfortable changing our operational model,” she said, in part. “I also agree with the parents in our community who worry about the potential decrease in the quality of education we would be providing with a switch to the hybrid model."
Additional takeaways from Thursday’s meeting include:
- Traditional building start and end times will return under Hybrid and that schedule will remain for the rest of the school year regardless of the instructional model, whether the student is remote or in-person or if there is an unplanned school closure related to COVID, the weather or another factor.
- In Hybrid, lessons will be streamed live from teachers’ classrooms so both in-person and remote students can watch, however, interactions with the teacher and remote students will be limited during the live instruction.
- The online attendance form must be submitted for each school day a student is attending virtually. Teachers will take attendance of students on in-person days.
- Students can choose to attend school virtually on days they could attend in-person if they are ill, in quarantine or not comfortable attending in-person. The online attendance form must be completed to be counted as present.
- Thursday, Oct. 1 and Friday, Oct. 2 will be asynchronous and independent school days to allow teachers time to prepare their classrooms for hybrid. There will be no live lessons.
- There will be no district morning or after school care during Hybrid. Information regarding YMCA after care is forthcoming.
- All student meals are free through Dec. 31 via the cafeteria on in-person days or curbside pick up on virtual days. Complete information is available at this link.
- The district has launched a new COVID-19 tracker to keep track of both active cases in the district by building and cases that have been cleared by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
- In order to get students in school and keep them there, it’s important we all follow health and safety guidelines both in school and out of school; wear a mask, keep your distance and if you are sick, please stay home!
Complete reopening information can be found here.