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By Jan Murphy
jmurphy@pennlive.com
HARRISBURG -- Pennsylvania's Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered K-12 school buildings to remain closed through an indefinite period of time as part of the commonwealth's ongoing efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The governor made this announcement on Monday afternoon along with announcing stay-at-home orders extended now though April 30 to four more counties - Cumberland, Dauphin, Carbon and Schuylkill counties- in addition to the 22 previously under such orders. Wolf's school closure order extends the one he issued last week that indicated schools would remain closed through at least April 6.
In the meantime, schools are required through an emergency school law enacted on Friday in response to the COVID-19 outbreak to make a good faith effort to resume education for students through alternate means although the state's 180-day school year mandate was waived. Several schools started up their distance education programs on Monday although many had been sending out lessons to students to maintain a continuity of education for days prior to that.
Monday was the first day of distance learning at West Shore School District.
Middletown Area School District plan to issue iPads to all elementary students this week. Its older students already have school-issued devices at home. But the district said teachers will not be grading assignments, at least for another week. Central Dauphin School District has loaned laptops to students who didn't have access to one and indicated on the district's website, it plans to begin rolling out classes next week.
Some districts, however, have not been able to resume classes remotely.
About that, Wolf said, "We are working on a plan to make sure we have a way to provide an education for the kids who are not getting an education for the next two months. The hope is we have that in place in the next few days … so by the time we start next week, we will have an alternative to the brick and mortar schools there now."
School buildings have been closed since March 16 over COVID-19 concerns.
Many colleges and universities across the state have made the decision to switch to fully online classes for the rest of the spring semester, including the 14 state universities, Penn State, Pitt and Temple universities.