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MILL HALL -- All Central Mountain High School students will return to the classrooms beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 16.
The announcement came at Thursday night's meeting of the Keystone Central School Board.
The district had been employing "cohort schedules" for the past several weeks. The cohort schedules featured students A through L (cohort 1) attending class in person on Monday and Tuesday, while Wednesday and Friday were remote. Students M through Z (cohort 2) were remote Monday through Wednesday and in person on Thursday and Friday.
"Late (Thursday) afternoon, it was confirmed that Central Mountain High School will be able to bring all students back next week, starting on Tuesday, as we have no school Monday (Feb. 15)," Superintendent Jacquelyn Martin said. "I believe that communications went out to families and staff."
Martin lauded school principals, teachers and staff for their efforts to be able to open classrooms for all students.
"Our principals and our staff have been working non-stop to make these plans work. They're continually making adjustments in an effort to keep learning moving forward while maintaining safety as our first priority. They work tirelessly," Martin said.
One of the biggest challenges the district faces is the constantly shifting schedules, she said.
"It might seem like, 'oh you just adjust some lunch schedules.' But it's not easy to adjust lunch schedules in facilities that were not built for having lunch all over a building. So, we are improvising and doing the best we can because we know how much our families want their children back in our schools and that most of our students learn much better in a face-to-face atmosphere," Martin said.
Martin said that the district continues to make strides and strictly adheres to the state's masking and social distancing mandates.
"Our secondary principals are still striving to meet state masking mandates while getting our students back in school five days a week. The biggest obstacle is finding enough space at lunchtime. It continues to be a huge challenge," Martin said.
Martin reminded parents and students that there will be no school on Monday, Feb. 15 (Presidents' Day) and Monday, Feb. 22 (Act 80 Day).
In other business Thursday, the board:
-- Heard a lengthy presentation from Dale Kirsch of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
-- Received a budget update from Martin and business manager Susan Blesh. According to Blesh, the goal for the next work session on March 4 is a budget deficit of $1 million with zero tax increase and zero use of reserves. The proposed final budget will appear on the May 13, 2021 agenda. Final budget adoption is scheduled for June 17, 2021.
-- Approved a revised 2020-21 school calendar. Barring any more snow days, the last day of school for students in the district will be June 7, 2021.
-- Announced that an auction will be held at Dickey Elementary beginning at 9:05 a.m. on Saturday, March 27, 2021.
The board will meet for a work session beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 4. That meeting will be held via Zoom and accessible through the district's website.