No hugs, but Pittsburgh schools students, staff happy to be back
Brashear High School junior Amare Code was so overjoyed to see some of her classmates in person on Tuesday that she temporarily forgot her pandemic protocols.
“I almost started hugging people, and everybody’s telling me ‘no hugging,’ ” she said from behind her face mask. “I was excited to see some friends I haven’t seen in a long time.”
Amare, 17, was among the first wave of Pittsburgh students to return to their school buildings since the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago. The reopening marks a milestone for the district that has been in a fully virtual model since March 2020, when schools were shut down to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The Pittsburgh Public Schools was one of just two districts in Allegheny County that had not reopened for at least some in-person instruction. The Wilkinsburg School District is set to reopen to students on April 12. Woodland Hills returned for the first time last week.
Pittsburgh’s approximately 20,000 students will be phased in over the next month, with the first 4,800 children returning this week. The first group of students to return to their buildings include those in PreK-5, special needs students, English language learners and others who the district said would benefit the most from in-person instruction.
Another group of students — about 5,200 strong — is scheduled to return the week of April 26. The remaining 10,000 students are expected to return the week of May 3.
Superintendent Anthony Hamlet, who visited several schools Tuesday morning, said the reactions from students and teachers as buildings reopened across the district was consistent.
“Kids are excited to be back meeting some of their friends in person, teachers are happy to have kids back, principals are happy to have kids back,” he said during an interview at Brashear in Beechview. “That’s what we’re about in education, our kids. And so having them back in the building is a great thing for all of us.”
That was true for Kim Daelhousen, a Brashear English- as- a- second- language teacher, who called the past year the most difficult in her more than decadelong career in education.
Ms. Daelhousen said she only had one student in her morning classes, but she was glad to finally get some masked face time with a child instead of communicating through a computer screen.
“It was truly a delight to see him, and I could tell he was smiling even underneath his mask — the eyes, you can just see it,” she said. “It was just really great to see him in person.”
Students and staff slowly trickled into Allderdice High School before the 7:40 a.m. bell under clear blue skies on a cool, quiet morning in Squirrel Hill.
Angelo Murphy, a sophomore, said he was looking forward to seeing school friends in person for the first time in a year. The pandemic, he said, made life boring.
“Not seeing anyone that you know, that’s not cool,” he said.
Angelo said he was not nervous about returning to school amid the pandemic. He said, however, that he was concerned the reopening of schools would coincide with an increase in COVID-19 cases.
“If more people keep coming, it’s just going to happen,” he said. “More people will get sick.”
The district stayed in a remote model for most of the year over a variety of concerns, including the health and safety of students and staff members and the COVID- 19 transmission rates in the community. While the transmission rates started trending downward in February and into March, they began to increase again over the past few weeks.
Mr. Hamlet said the district will monitor the rise in cases as well as the variant strains of the virus now circulating in the region. But he said the ability for teachers and support staff to be vaccinated in addition to the procedures and protocols the district already had in place should allow schools to
remain open for the rest of the academic year.
“Having the opportunity to be vaccinated, I think that was a game-changer,” Mr. Hamlet said. “And that just really put us in a place where we’re definitely coming back without any issues.”
Most students will be in a hybrid model that has them coming to school two days a week and learning online the other three days. Students at the Pioneer and Conroy special education centers will attend class inperson four days a week.
Even though the number of students was limited Tuesday, Brashear principal Kimberly Safran said it was nice to have some life in the hallways that have been empty for too long.
Ms. Safran said reuniting with her students for the first time in more than a year was an emotional experience.
Despite the excitement, Ms. Safran, like Amare, said she tries to keep her pandemic protocols in mind.
“Some of them have tried to give me hugs, and I try to do the distance hug — I’m trying to keep everyone safe,” she said. “But it means so much, it touches my heart because I have an impact on their lives and they have an impact on mine.”