Secondary students in the Seneca Valley School District will return to four-day-a-week in-person learning Feb. 22.

At a special meeting Tuesday afternoon, the Seneca Valley school board voted to shift grades seven through 12 from the current blended learning model, in which students learn in person two days and virtually three days a week, to a four-day-a-week physical model, in which all students learn virtually on Fridays.

Superintendent Tracy Vitale said this move comes after the state Department of Education noted Butler County has downgraded from the “substantial” COVID-19 transmission rating to a “moderate” rating.

Vitale added the district has been monitoring data on both county- and ZIP code-level fronts, and saw local data has decreased enough for the state to make that designation.

She also that said while 51 counties in the state remain in the “substantial” range, that is a lower number than last week.

“We tend to, as human beings, focus on the despair,” Vitale said. “And I want to point out that, as of yesterday, 15 counties moved into moderate.”

Board president Eric DiTullio noted the four-day-a-week schedule would not be mandatory for all students, including those who may be at a higher risk because of COVID-19.

“Parents will also have the choice to not send their children back full-time,” he said. “Remote will still be an option for them.”

Primary students in the district had moved to the four-day schedule Feb. 8. All students in kindergarten through 12th-grade with an individualized education program similarly moved to the four-day schedule that day.

School director Fred Peterson, who holds a master's degree in public health, said the lower level of viral transmission in the county and local region was a sign for guarded optimism. “We're not home free by any means,” he said. “The specter of these variants is the great unknown at this point. It appears they're more transmissible (than the original virus) but less pathogenic,” with fewer people in the hospital or dying from them.