Virtual Wednesdays offer cleaning, online practice

On Aug. 17, the Milton School Board voted to revise its Health and Safety Plan to include a hybrid learning option.  

This option, to be “implemented when community spread rate does not allow for five day in person instruction,” has resulted in Virtual Wednesdays. According to the plan, these days allow “buildings to have additional cleaning and further social distance the school community.”  

Virtual Wednesdays allow custodians to deep clean the building. “Without anyone here, one of the benefits of Wednesdays allow custodians and maintenance to get work done and the school can be deeply cleaned,” said Milton Director of Facilities Mr. Jeff Hoffman.  

“Virtual Wednesdays also give practice for staff and students, so if we need to go fully virtual, we can all instantly jump into a virtual school year and have very little problems,” said Business Administrator Mr. Derrek Fink.  

Superintendent Dr. Cathy Keegan said that there are no plans to go completely virtual or close down unless the COVID-19 situation worsens in our area. 

“The sudden shift to virtual in March was difficult and with these virtual Wednesdays, it should lead to a smoother transition since teachers and students already do it once a week,” said Mr. Fink. 

“The statewide COVID-19 spread rates influence the instructional model for the district,” said Pandemic Coordinator Ms. Catherine Girton. Due to the spread rates in Northumberland County and Union County, “the Departments of Health and Department of Education recommend no full in-person instructional models until counties are in low spread rate for at least two consecutive weeks,” said Ms. Girton. 

“The decision to return to full in-person instruction would be a Superintendent’s decision based on multiple data sources such as Department of Health, PA Department of Education, disaggregation of Positive COVID-19 cases by zip code and type/size local facilities with outbreaks,” Ms. Girton said.