With COVID-19 numbers increasing, Superintendent Lee Lesisko addressed the elephant in the room at the Pleasant Valley School Board meeting Thursday night. Would the school district move to full remote learning? The simple answer is no.

Lesisko said that of the 15 cases of COVID-19 that have been reported to the school district since school began in September, none of them originated within a school building. He said they are certain of this based on contact tracing. All of the infections happened within the community.

“The hybrid model that we are using is working well,” he said.

The hybrid program has students with the last names beginning with A through K attending classes on Monday and Tuesday. Students whose last names begin with L through Z attend classes on Thursday and Friday. On the off days, the students study online, and all students study online on Wednesdays.

The hybrid model allows for the school district to deep clean the buildings on Wednesdays, in addition to the cleaning every day. It also reduces the number of people that a person with COVID-19 could come into contact with and potentially infect.

Lesisko said he has met with a group of superintendents and three have decided to do all remote learning, but the others are staying with their current practice.

According to the state Department of Health Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard, Monroe County had 153.4 cases per 100,000 people and a percent positivity of 10.1% for the week of Nov. 6 through 12. That places it in the substantial community spread range, where full remote learning should be considered.

The school district’s solicitor Mark Fitzgerald suggested to the board pass a motion to give the superintendent the authority to move the district to full remote learning without reconvening the school board if certain circumstances occur.

School board director Susan Kresge said she was concerned that the motion might be too limiting.

Fitzgerald assured her that it doesn’t.

“I think if there is a situation where, and I’ll give you probably an unlikely scenario but a scenario nonetheless, where our staffing level is fine, no transmission in school, but the case count in Monroe County goes just absolutely off the charts in a bad way, obviously he could close school then, too,” he said.

Kresge then asked Lesisko if he has a committee in which he discusses COVID-19. He said he meets in person weekly with the principals to talk about any issues they have seen, the safety plan, and solutions to streamline processes.

Public comment

Robert Mullin of Chestnuthill Township said he appreciates Lesisko’s efforts to keep cases down, but thinks the school district should move to full in-person learning five-days a week. He said it was suggested at an earlier school board meeting and he would like to see it considered for a vote at each meeting.

“I’m ready. My kid is ready, and I see nothing in the news and scientific literature or anywhere that suggests that we shouldn’t be doing this,” he said.

Mullin said Wallenpaupack Area School District is back five days a week and that their cases are similar to Monroe County.

“At this point, it’s irresponsible of the school system to not be going back full time,” he said.

Wallenpaupack Area School District lies within Pike and Wayne counties. The incident rate of cases is 76.9 per 100,000 with a percent positivity of 8.1% in Pike and 56.5 per 100,000 people and a 3.7% positivity for Wayne County, according to the DOH.

Prefers hybrid

Pleasant Valley High School student Tyler Mann of Chestnuthill Township said he thinks the hybrid model is the way to go for the school district.

“As someone who has contracted and recovered from COVID-19, I can say that I understand why we are currently in the hybrid system, and I know that it is needed - although it stinks it is needed - because if I had been going to school five days, I can’t imagine how many other people would have gone through what I went through, which was not fun,” he said.

On another COVID-related topic, Joe Fiduccia of Chestnuthill Township read a statement from his wife who could not be there for the meeting. They wanted to alert the school district that some students and teachers at the high school are not following the Health and Safety Plan. Some students are not wearing their masks, and teachers have been seen standing too close together and not wearing masks.

Following public comment, Lesisko said the district cannot go back full-time at the moment, because the school buildings cannot have all of the students in the buildings and keep them 6 feet apart. The classrooms aren’t big enough. The buildings weren’t designed for pandemics, he said.

Lesisko also encouraged people who see health guidelines not being followed, to tell the school’s principal.