Mars School Board unanimously approved pushing back the first day of school to Sept. 8 in a special virtual meeting Thursday morning. School was originally scheduled to start Monday.

But the reason for delaying the start of classes isn't due to health concerns, according to Superintendent Mark Gross. It's because of backlogged shipping.

“We were very confident we would be able to start school Monday,” Gross said. “The issues come with supplies.”

According to Gross, supplies ordered as recently as Wednesday now have delayed shipment dates.

He said the issue seems to be statewide. Schools across Pennsylvania have been ordering large amounts of new technology to prepare for a pandemic-adapted school year.

“Those things are just on such demand,” Gross said.

Among the technology supplies that have been ordered but haven't arrived are cables, adapters and hubs. The district expects to receive these items by next week and have them installed by Sept. 8. New elementary desks are also under delayed shipping and should arrive next week.

The plan is to delay school to allow for these things to be properly installed.

“It's not something I'm thrilled about,” Gross said. “But I don't think it's fair to the students … I don't think it's fair to the teachers.”

Gross said another contributor to the delay was a technology “whammy” that occurred Wednesday. He said a primary district internet server went down in the morning and wasn't “talking” with the backup server.

While this prevented district staff from much work, it also prohibited teachers from programming their livestream interactive (LSI) learning lapel mics into their computers to prepare for virtual classrooms.

“It was pretty much a lost day,” Gross said. “The good news is, we had a couple days of good training (before it).”

The issue was resolved around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, according to district officials.

“Just about Murphy's Law,” Gross said. “Just about the time the teachers were leaving for the day.”

Moving the first day of school back doesn't change the last day of school.

Prom and graduation dates will also remain the same. Some adjustments that will be made include establishing a parent-teacher conference day April 1 and classifying snow days as Flexible Instruction Days (FIDs).

Also, teachers originally scheduled for an in-service day Friday will have the day off. Some Act 80 days were moved to next week to allow teachers to complete training and for the installation of delayed equipment.

“No one likes this,” Gross said. “(But) it's the right thing.”

“It's a very difficult decision,” said John Kennedy, school board president. “But it's something we've had to do just due to supply.”

Gross said the district's health and safety plan remains intact.

“We're very, very ready,” Gross said.

The adjusted school calendar will be posted on the district website.