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NANTICOKE &mdash; Three Luzerne County School Districts may have announced a change from hybrid lessons to remote-only learning in the last two days, but Greater Nanticoke Area Superintendent Ron Grevera said at Thursday&rsquo;s monthly school board meeting that, as of now, his district is sticking to the hybrid model previously announced.
				On Tuesday and Wednesday Wyoming Valley West, Wyoming Area and Crestwood school districts all announced they were scrapping previous plans to open school with a hybrid model that breaks students into two groups, half of them in school on any given day and half learning remotely at home. The three said they will spend the first part of the new school year in remote-only mode.
				But in Greater Nanticoke&rsquo;s first in-person board meeting in months &mdash; with board members spread apart across the stage and the audience restricted to seats several aisles apart, everyone wearing masks &mdash; Grevera opened with a short slide show presentation repeating the plan previously approved: One group of students in the school Monday and Tuesday, the other in Thursday and Friday, those not in school learning at the same time online, and Wednesday lessons being all virtual so schools can be deep cleaned and teachers can upload lesson plans.
				&ldquo;I&rsquo;m confident we have a very successful mitigation plan to keep students and faculty safe,&rdquo; Grevera said after the meeting, though he added that the district looks at COVID-19 infection rates daily and will switch to remote-only learning if local rates rise.
				The state recently set new guidance for when schools should consider which of three education options they chose: full in person, hybrid or remote only. Based on number of new infections over seven days and the percentage of tests coming back positive, county&rsquo;s are deemed &ldquo;low,&rsquo; &ldquo;moderate,&rdquo; or &ldquo;substantial&rdquo; in risk. Districts in counties deemed &ldquo;low&rdquo; should use full traditional or hybrid learning, those in &ldquo;moderate&rdquo; counties should consider hybrid or remote, while those in &ldquo;substantial&rdquo; counties should consider going to full remote.
				Grevera said he will switch to full-remote for the start of school if Luzerne County gets close to &ldquo;substantial,&rdquo; but that he wouldn&rsquo;t wait until the ranking actually changed. He cited the positivity thresholds as an example. Under the state system, a county is &ldquo;Low&rdquo; if less than 5% of tests are positive, and moderate if the range is 5% to less than 10%. Luzerne County is currently at 5.4%.
				&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t wait until we got to 10%,&rdquo; Grevera said. &ldquo;If it goes to 6.5% or 7%, I may make the change to remote.&rdquo;
				During the meeting the board approved several pandemic-related actions, including buying four Air Oasis Air Purifiers at $6,783, hiring Ameristar Facility Solutions at $11,798 for staff training and consulting on cleaning procedures, and buying 700 Chromebook computers from GDC I.T. solutions at a cost of $147,434 for student use.
				At the end of his presentation, Grevera predicted students and staff will be wearing masks and social distancing &ldquo;all year, whether we like it or not.&rdquo; After the meeting, as if to visually emphasize the new normal, a masked worker walked up and down the auditorium aisles, one of the district&rsquo;s new electrostatic sprayers strapped to his back, applying a fast acting-disinfectant onto the seats and arm rests.
				Then he headed onto the stage to spray tables and chairs used by the board.

Greater Nanticoke Area sticking with hybrid plan, for now