JIM THORPE, Pa. — In just over two weeks, students will be back inside Jim Thorpe Area's school buildings.
"I felt as superintendent, whether we go back September 8 or go back sometime in the future, why not go back September 8?" said Jim Thorpe Area Superintendent John Rushefski. "Let's see what this looks like get kids back into a routine."
Schools in the district will operate on a hybrid model. Kindergarten through grade 5 will be in school Monday through Thursday. Grades 6 to 12 will attend school in person two days a week. Some will go Monday and Tuesday, and others Wednesday and Thursday.
When kids aren't on campus, they'll use the district's online learning program.
Fridays will be reserved for deep cleaning in all buildings.
More than one-third of parents in the district are choosing to keep their kids at home full-time.
Administrators say their schools will all be at roughly one-third of their normal capacity on in-person learning days.
The state recommended Carbon County schools use a full online learning model or a hybrid model given their coronavirus numbers and Jim Thorpe administrators feel they're well within the guidelines.
"You start to approach September, you open school," said Rushefski. "You start those fall rituals and traditions and we feel we can do that safely with our COVID-19 safety plan."
The district IT director has stepped up as the pandemic coordinator. He says in addition to getting students their school-issued laptops, he's spent the past several weeks setting up PPE. Classrooms will have screen protectors on all of the desks, and students will have to wear masks when they move about the building.
The district was able to use federal grant money to purchase three automatic temperature machines. All students will be screened for a fever when they arrive each day.
"Fill out a survey when they come in as far as just the basics, 'Do you have symptoms?' things of that nature. That's monitored every day," said Joe Brown. "In case we have a positive, we've had a couple positives, they were dealt with, some things shut down for a couple weeks, so every step is taken."
It was some Jim Thorpe fall sports athletes who tested positive for COVID-19.
Rushefski says if they present more positive cases during the school year, the district may have to change its learning model.
"Two to Five seems to be consistently what the number would be when you combine staff and students, so when you're in that two to five here in the high school, if we have two to five, it could shut down the high school. If we had two to five in an elementary school, it could shut down that, but it would be something the pandemic team would look at," Rushefski said.
The first day of classes in the Jim Thorpe Area School District is scheduled for Tuesday, September 8.