ECASD to Move to Remote Learning for Three Days

Ellwood City Area School will temporarily move to remote learning for the three days leading up to the Christmas Break.

The days include Dec. 20, 21, and 22. Teachers and Instructional aides will work remotely with students for a full day on Monday and Tuesday and a half-day on Wednesday.

“This is an effort to reduce exposure to COVID prior to the holidays,” said Superintendent Dr. Wesley Shipley.

He said although the case number is low, the decision was based on many factors including:

1. The district currently has over 70 students out on quarantine due to community contacts—this would provide a complete 14-day break and will provide a “re-set” of the numbers of students on quarantine.
2. Moving to remote on these days would limit possible student exposure to COVID and Flu viruses prior to the holidays.
3. Contact tracing requires a lot of time and coordination between district administration, school nurses, staff and families. The move to remote would greatly reduce the required contact tracing especially at a time when school personnel would not be available to help (over the break) because the last possible contact in school would be Friday, December 17th.
4. The move to remote would allow for extensive cleaning of all district facilities prior to a return on January.
5. When classes resume in January, the district will move to a “Test To Stay” model for students that have been exposed to the virus. Students that are identified as a close contact either from school or in the community would be offered a rapid test. If the test is negative and the child does not have any symptoms, they may stay in school wearing a mask rather than quarantine for the required number of days. This should greatly reduce the number of healthy students that are currently required to stay home.

During this time of remote learning, all school activities and sports will continue with their normal schedule.

Students who use district transportation for outside schools and the LCCTC will continue to have busing on these days.

The district will continue to serve breakfast and lunch to all students during this time of remote with a plan to provide three meals to every student on Monday using a similar method as utilized with remote learning in the past.

Shipley asked families to anticipate more detailed information next week.

“I see many long-term benefits of this plan including improved in-person participation when we return on January 3rd, 2022,” Shipley said. “It is my hope that we experience a healthy holiday season and winter of 2022.”