Snow covers cars and the roadway Monday in Gary's Miller section.
GARY — Winter weather has again delayed when students in the Gary Community School Corp. will be back in the classroom.
In a Facebook post Wednesday, the school district said "vast" snow accumulation has pushed the return date to Monday, Feb. 22.
Students will have asynchronous virtual learning Thursday and Friday.
"After conducting today's practice run with school buses, it was determined that many streets throughout the city have excessive amounts of snow making it difficult for students to walk and buses to access routes," the district said Wednesday. "The safety of our students and staff comes first!"
Originally, students were expected to begin in-person learning Monday, Feb. 15, but inclement weather pushed the return to Thursday.
The district's slated return to in-person instruction on Monday, Feb. 22, will mark the first time in nearly a year since students have been in the classroom. On March 13, the coronavirus shuttered public schools across Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.
Families in the school district chose whether or not to send their children back to in-person instruction in a recent Return to Learn survey, Paige McNulty, manager of Gary schools, said in a recent video to parents.
Come Monday, Feb. 22, 46% of students will return to the classroom, while 54% will continue with virtual learning.
Once students return, they will be met with a new reality. Now, students will have their temperature checked at the door and will be required to wear face masks, McNulty said.
Student and staff desks will have shields around them, lunches will be packed individually and social distancing measures will be in place. Water fountains in the buildings will be off, but students will be given two bottles of water per day, McNulty said.
The school corporation is set to have its curbside food distribution from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at its four locations, including Banneker at Marquette at door B, south; Gary Area Career Center at cafeteria door, south; Glen Park Academy at door B, west; and West Side Leadership Academy at the surge doors, south.
Calumet College of St. Joseph
Calumet College of St. Joseph staff provide regular updates sharing the number of active cases and total cases among students, staff and faculty. The college also provides the number of individuals cleared to return to CCSJ. Data is available on the college's website at ccsj.edu/covid19.
Crown Point Community School Corp.
Crown Point administrators regularly share updates on the number of close contacts quarantined in each school. The district also shares a weekly update on the number of students and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19. Data is available on the Crown Point Community School Corp. website under the COVID-19 Impact Data link at cps.k12.in.us.
Duneland School Corp.
The Duneland School Corp. regularly updates a DSC COVID-19 Dashboard sharing the number of active and total cases reported by school building. The dashboard is available online under the district's COVID-19 Support Center at duneland.k12.in.us/domain/410.
East Porter County School Corp.
The East Porter County School Corp. provides data on the number of active cases reported as each school in the district. East Porter County's dashboard is updated daily at 3 p.m. and is available under the Featured Events section of the district's homepage at eastporter.k12.in.us.
Griffith Public Schools
Griffith Public Schools shares data for the number of positive cases and quarantines in each school building among students and staff. Data is available on the Griffith Public Schools coronavirus website at griffith.k12.in.us.
Hanover Community School Corp.
Hanover Community School Corp. administrators update a public COVID-19 Data Dashboard weekly with information with the number of positive cases by school and the percentage of in-person staff and students quarantined. The Hanover dashboard can be found under the Announcements section of the district's website at hanover.k12.in.us.
Indiana University Northwest
Indiana University Northwest provides weekly update every Wednesday in the university's efforts to test symptomatic individuals in addition to preventative mitigation tests. Data for each can be found on IUN's website at covid.iu.edu/dashboards/northwest.
Lake Central School Corp.
Lake Central staff update a COVID-19 Impact Data table every Wednesday detailing the number of positive cases and quarantines in each school. The district's COVID-19 data is available online under the Important News tab at lcsc.us.
Michigan City Area Schools
Michigan City Area Schools updates a COVID-19 Data Dashboard with the number of active and total cases of coronavirus reported by school building, as well as the number of active and total close contacts identified across the district. The Michigan City dashboard is available on the district's COVID-19 Support & Information website at mcas.k12.in.us/corona.
Portage Township Schools
Portage provides regular updates on the number of active cases and quarantines across its district, as well as case totals for each school, in an interactive database. Portage's coronavirus data is available on the district's COVID-19 Information page at portage.k12.in.us/back_to_school_plan/p_t_s_c_o_v_i_d-19_dashboard.
Purdue University Northwest
Purdue University Northwest provides weekly updates every Friday on the number of positive cases active among students, as well as faculty and staff. The university's PNW Active COVID-19 Cases dashboard can be found at pnw.edu/pnw-and-coronavirus-covid-19.
School City of East Chicago
The School City of East Chicago shares data on current and cumulative reports of COVID-19 and quarantines among students and staff by school building. The district provides updates on Tuesday evenings. A dashboard is available on the school city's homepage at scec.k12.in.us.
School City of Hammond
The School City of Hammond provides weekly updates on the number of individuals quarantined and that have tested positive for COVID-19. The data is available on the school city's homepage at hammond.k12.in.us.
School City of Hobart
The School City of Hobart provides weekly summary data of positive student and staff cases and quarantines by school building. The Hobart data is available online under the Weekly Summary Data section of the school city's Protect Brickies website at hobart.k12.in.us/protectbrickies.
School City of Whiting
The School City of Whiting shares updates on the number of active cases, as well as total cases dating back to Oct. 5, among each of the district's three schools. The data is accessible by visiting the school city's website at whiting.k12.in.us/o/district.
School Town of Highland
The School Town of Highland shares weekly updates on the number of active and total COVID-19 cases and quarantines for each of its schools. Data is updated weekly on Fridays and includes total for both staff and students. Highland's COVID-19 Impact Data dashboard is available on the school town's homepage at highland.k12.in.us.
Union Township School Corp.
Union Township School Corp. shared the number of active COVID-19 cases in each of its schools in a district dashboard. The data is available by visiting Union Township's homepage at union.k12.in.us.
Valparaiso Community Schools
Valparaiso Community Schools provides weekly updates of new positive cases and quarantines, as well as historical data, for its district. New cases and total cases reported are also included for each school. The district's COVID-19 Dashboard is available at valpo.k12.in.us/apps/pages/dashboard.
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso University provides daily updates of the number of active cases and quarantines among students, faculty and staff on campus. The university also provides historic data on the total number of cases reported and individual who have recovered. And, VU includes a percentage of beds available for use of students in quarantine or isolation. The information is available at Valparaiso's website valpo.edu/looking-forward.
Mary Freda
South Lake County Reporter
Mary Freda is the South Lake County reporter at The Times. She is a proud Ball State graduate, where she studied news journalism and Spanish. You can reach Mary at mary.freda@nwi.com or 219-853-2563.
