Greater Johnstown launching email for parents' concerns

Jun. 26--Greater Johnstown School district is planning to survey parents next week on reopening options, but Superintendent Amy Arcurio said administrators are planning to take an extra step to ensure everyone is heard.

In addition to the poll of Johnstown families, the district is also launching a dedicated email address for individual concerns about returning to school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We want to make sure we are listening and responding to the needs and concerns of our school community," Arcurio said.

Questions, concerns or suggestions about reopening can now be sent to gjsdquestions@gjsd.net.

The planned survey will have a variety of options for answering but school officials recognize the need for a more open-ended line of communication.

Arcurio said the Greater Johnstown administrators will be monitoring the email and corresponding with those who contact the district.

"We wanted some way for them (parents) to contact us," Greater Johnstown Education Association President Tina Rogers said.

She also serves on the planning committee for the district and explained that the idea for a dedicated email came out of a session where the members were throwing ideas around.

The thought was instead of parents reaching out to teachers or administrators for answers, all that communication could be channeled into one reception point.

By using the email address, parents can get a response quickly instead of possibly waiting, Rogers said.

All of this will assist in development of the health and safety plan being created along with the survey of the staff that was completed recently.

As required by the state government, Greater Johnstown established a pandemic response team made up of various stakeholders, including parents, school nurses, administrators and board members.

That group has met five times thus far to strategize about how best to reopen.

There have been "several challenges" along the way, Arcurio said, namely in addressing a "wide variety" of issues while also making sure individual needs are taken care of as well.

"We have a very unique population in our district that needs our attention," Arcurio said.

She compared this task to peeling an onion, stating that there are many layers and school officials are pulling back and dealing with one at a time.

Once the plan is as complete as it can be, it'll be sent to the infectious disease department of Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center for review and additional guidance.

___

(c)2020 The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, Pa.)

Visit The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, Pa.) at www.tribune-democrat.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.