Hanover Area sets tentative March 1 return to hybrid mode

HANOVER TWP. — Stressing things can change quickly, Hanover Area Superintendent Nathan Barrett laid out a plan Thursday to bring special needs students back to school Feb. 16, and slowly return elementary students to hybrid learning beginning March 1. Elementary students will return beginning with kindergarten students, adding more grades each week depending on developments.

The plan — announced during a “community meeting” held via Zoom with nearly 200 people attending — will move forward even if the state continues to list Luzerne County as in the “substantial” risk of transmission category. Barrett said if the county moves to “moderate” sooner, he would bring more students back sooner.

The move follows new guidance from the state. Previously, the state recommended districts in substantial counties use remote-only learning for all students, but now suggests students in all grades who require extra attention — such as special needs and life-skills students — return to in-person learning, as well as elementary grade students. The state still advises high school students stay in remote-only mode until a district is removed from the substantial category.

Barrett began the meeting by reviewing the state system which rates counties as “low” if the percentage of positive test results is at or below 5%, “moderate” if above 5% but below 10%, and “substantial if 10% or higher. He said Luzerne County has been in the substantial category longer than any other county in the state. As a result, the state Department of Education has assigned a liaison to advise Luzerne County schools.

The rate in the district ZIP code of 18706 was 25.59% on Thursday, Barrett said. While that’s well above the 10% benchmark, he noted it is lower than it’s been in recent weeks, and that it “came down 10 points in one week.” Right now he expects it will stay in the substantial area into February, but if it were to drop sharply into moderate he would likely set up another community meeting and work to bring all grades back into the schools.

The students specifically to be brought back Feb. 16 are autistic support, emotional support, life skills and highest needs students.

The hybrid mode will remain the one first used at the start of the school year, before the county entered the substantial category: One group attends in person for a week, Monday through Thursday, while the other attends online. Friday all students stay home while the buildings are deep cleaned. The next week the second group of students come to school while the first group learns at home.

“We are mindful this has not been the best semester for students to learn,” Barrett said. “The ability to walk up to a teacher and ask for clarification on an issue or get feedback is not readily available. We are mindful of learning loss.” He said the district is working on plans to “mitigate as much loss as we can,” possibly including after school classes or tutoring on weekends and even during the summer.

Asked why he wasn’t bringing all elementary grades back at once on March 1, Barrett said “I don’t want to send everybody into the building all at once and have the possibility of being a super-spreader, so to speak.”