Keystone Oaks Schools Pushes Back Reopening Date

PITTSBURGH — Classes in the Keystone Oaks School District won't begin until Sept. 8, the district announced Monday.

The school said the reopening, now moved forward by one week, was changed due to a delay in having Chromebook computers delivered, a necessary technology for online and hybrid classes.

In a news conference on Wednesday, Keystone Oaks superintendent William Stropkaj said the school board will vote on Tuesday to approve the school's new calendar.

The new schedule has students between 1st and 12th grade starting classes on Sept. 8. Kindergarten orientation will begin on the same day, but classes for kindergarteners will not officially begin classes until Sept. 14.

Stropkaj said teachers will return to schools on Aug. 24 for a professional development period lasting through Aug. 27. Between the 27th and Sept. 4, teachers will put in a clerical day.

Materials — including Chromebooks, textbooks and workbooks — will be distributed from Aug. 31 and Sept. 4, the superintendent said. The principal of each building will email students and parents alerting them of their specific pickup date and time.

Information about orientation for rising 6th and 9th graders will also be distributed by principals in the coming days, he said.

For kindergarteners, the period of Sept. 8 through 11 will be set aside for orientation. During that week, teachers will reach out to students and their families to schedule one-on-one orientation sessions, Stropkaj said. Kindergarten students will begin classes on Sept. 14.

Stropkaj reminded community members that classes will be held via a hybrid learning model or solely online through the district's "cyber academy."

In hybrid classes, students will spend two days each week in classrooms and three days learning online from home.

"This is necessary once again to limit the number of students in the buildings and for social distancing," he said.

Students in middle and high schools will observe a block schedule, and those at home will learn by watching broadcasts of teachers instructing students in classrooms.

Elementary students, meanwhile, will be assigned a sole teacher responsible for teaching an individual cohort of students.

Stropkaj said the district is actively monitoring the coronavirus situation in Allegheny County and will adjust as necessary based on case numbers.

"We also want families to be aware there may be a chance we need to start the school with full online instruction should something change in the county," he said. "Over the next few weeks, please continue to do your part to stop the spread of coronavirus: wear face coverings, practice social distancing, avoid crowded areas, wash your hands."

Still, he said, the district is "very optimistic we will be able to start without any flaws."

Keystone Oaks School District posts regular reopening updates on its Facebook page.