The pandemic is changing things in Warren County School District.

And probably not just in the short term.

For months, families could choose from three different ways to attend the district – in-person, full-virtual, and a blended model where students at home follow along with the normal school day.

Since Dec. 9, the in-person option was eliminated.

During Monday’s school board committee meetings, district Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Eric Mineweaser said the attendance rates for the first three days after that change was made was higher than the overall average since the start of the new year.

“That’s 94.92 percent overall of our students for those three days,” Mineweaser said.

The total rate from the start of the school year was 93.67 percent, he said.

For the first three days of virtual – the period for which data was available in time for the meeting – “Two grade levels at Youngsville Elementary were over 99 percent,” Mineweaser said. “The lowest we had was 83 percent on one grade level.”

Students and families are adapting. Some working parents have told the district they have struggled with making sure their students are following along with the school day as they should and thanked the district for offering transportation and internet cafes in the school buildings, according to board member Arthur Stewart.

The pandemic has driven the district to provide options.

Some changes started in the 2019-2020 school year.

“We talked about that with graduations,” board member Joe Colosimo said. “We deviated from the norm… It will be interesting this year to see if the seniors want to embrace the out-of-the-norm.”

“The biggest thing that the board should take away at this point… parents are really appreciating choices,” Superintendent Amy Stewart said.

“They’re in a difficult spot because of their specific situation. By giving them the choices that we are, they’re able to find something that meets their needs.”

“I don’t foresee us being able to take away some of these choices,” she said. “I don’t think we’re going to go back to the way it was. This is going to change us forever.”

Athletics

High school athletics were shut down through Jan. 4 by Gov. Tom Wolf.

When the district’s programs are allowed to resume, most should have healthy participation numbers.

“At this time, the numbers for the most part look good,” Director of Administrative Support Services Gary Weber said. “The only numbers that were low or probationary were the junior high wrestling numbers.”

During a discussion of the third- and 10th-day numbers for the winter athletics season, Weber said there were eight participants in junior high wrestling at Eisenhower. Eight is the minimum number for that program to be offered.

There were no varsity nor junior high cheerleaders at Eisenhower and no junior high cheerleaders nor junior high wrestlers at Youngsville on the list.

There was interest in the programs at Eisenhower, but not enough to offer either program, according to Coordinator of District-Wide Athletics Rick Gignac. “At Youngsville, they didn’t have anyone sign up for those – junior high cheerleading and junior high wrestling.”

There were a few students on the list who were participating through cooperative agreements.

Currently, Abraxas is not sending its students to Sheffield to participate in any of the programs the schools cooperate on.

Cooperative agreements within in the district will be offered, whether students are coming from another physical building or the Virtual Academy.

“We’re going to allow it as long as sports are running,” Weber said.

Kindergarten registration

“Kindergarten registration is right around the corner,” Director of Elementary Education Lynn Shultz said. “It will take place online in January.”

There will be a new tab on the district website for the registrations, she said, and parents will be able to check out videos as well as sign up.

Anyone who encounters problems signing up online may register in person at the central office in Russell during the last week of January.