Pa.’s teachers, schools struggle amid ongoing COVID-19 crisis
Updated on Jan 27, 2021;
Published on Jan 27, 2021
Reopening meant major changes to scheduling, sanitation and even the physical layout of Middletown schools.
“WAS IT COVID?”
One veteran teacher of the Middletown Area School District explains her thought process: “I just spoke to so-and-so in the hall. Do I have it now?”
Fear spreads virulently as students and staff vanish without explanation from Pennsylvania’s K-12 schools this bleak midwinter.
One year into the pandemic, teachers and support staff say they feel set adrift without a lifeline.
They have little recourse when schools fail to follow safety guidelines because school boards and administrators, themselves struggling under budget deficits and staff shortages, have no incentive to admit fault.
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Jacob Tierney | Tribune-Review
Staff of Greater Latrobe School District line up Saturday at the high school auditorium to receive covid vaccines.
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The Greater Latrobe School District staff members who lined up Saturday to get covid vaccines said the shots gave them a glimmer of hope that the pandemic could be nearing its end.
“I was thrilled,” said Renee Gyory, a secretary and one of the first district employees to be vaccinated. “It’s positive; it’s what we need. The sooner everyone’s vaccinated, the sooner we can move on with normal life.”
Greater Latrobe School District expects to have the majority of its staff receive the first dose of the Moderna covid-19 vaccine before the end of January. Meanwhile, neighboring Ligonier Valley School District confirmed that the better part of its staff already has been vaccinated against the virus at the heart