by Megan Schiffres
LOTTSBURG—Students are working and learning exclusively from home for the remainder of the school year due to the Commonwealth’s stay-at-home order in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the pandemic still poses a serious public health risk and a vaccine is months, or perhaps years away.
In the midst of this uncertainty, school districts like Northumberland are attempting to plan for the possibility of both in-person and virtual learning next year. The school board considered an emergency expansion of their technology deployment in an attempt to give students the resources they may need if school closures extend into the 2020-21 academic year.
“We’re kicking around the idea of what we will do should we—worst case scenario—go into complete lockdown. We want to get the school online,” said director of technology Bob Gilbert. “While we’re giving out laptops right now, that addresses the immediate needs. For any needs that are identified, we want to do a whole schoolwide distribution.”
According to Gilbert, the entire district has 45 laptops available…
