Slippery Rock Area School District will have its livestreaming option in place for the start of school Wednesday, according to school officials.

Assistant superintendent Susan Miller said the teachers and Brett Harper, director of IT for the district, have worked hard to provide a synchronous livestream option without requiring students to enroll in cyberschool.

“They really found a great way to make it work and viable for kids,” Miller said.

Slippery Rock is offering two other options for returning to school. The first is in-person learning, which will constitute about 80 percent of the student body, with cyberschool as the other alternative.

Miller said the livestream option offers flexibility and options for parents. She said one example is if a student is attending in-person school, but needs to be quarantined due to exposure, the livestream option allows them to keep up.

“When they do transition back, they won't miss a thing,” Miller said. “It's an exciting option for kids. It really keeps them connected to the classroom.”

Anticipating a crowd of about 25 people at Monday's meeting, the Slippery Rock Area School Board met in a separate room from its normal meeting place in the Slippery Rock Area Middle School Library, where the public was invited to sit in socially distanced seats.

The meeting was then livestreamed to a projector and shown on a large screen, but there were technical difficulties, mostly audio.

Heather Runtas, a parent and cheer coach, said she had difficulty hearing the meeting, which bothered her because she wanted to hear the discussion about athletics.

The board agreed Monday to opt into PIAA competition, which will likely hold a limited season due to COVID-19. Other decisions, such as whether to allow band and cheer teams to travel for away games, will be made at a district level.

Runtas said she would understand if her team could only perform at home games, but what bothered her as a mother and coach was the inability for fans to attend games, even if it's just the maximum of 250 people.

“I can understand if they don't want us to travel,” Runtas said. “I'm having a big problem with no spectators.”

Another parent, Michelle Ringler, said she is hesitant about the return-to-school plans being too strict. She said children need to interact, and she doesn't think it's right for the children or their parents to live in fear.

“I really don't like the thought of my child sitting in a classroom with a mask all the time,” she said.

With students returning to school Wednesday, a lot of groundwork has been laid by the administration, including by Miller, whose first day with the district was in July.

Since then, Miller has had a hand in shaping the district's back-to-school plan, and she has answered hundreds of questions parents have submitted by email and phone.

“Hit the ground running is a good way to describe it,” she said. “I really see my role as getting the information we need, whether that's from PDE or our stakeholders in the community.”

Miller replaced former assistant superintendent Patricia Kardambikis, who retired after being with the district since 2014. Miller previously served as assistant director of curriculum and instruction for the Northwest Tri-County Intermediate Unit 5 in Edinboro.

Also having previous experience in school administration, she said she looks forward to once again shaping a district from the inside, which in the 2020-21 school year, and possibly beyond, will involve COVID-19 protocols.

“Instead of being an outside consultant, I'm now in the midst and working alongside teachers and administrators,” she said. “I do believe we have a good plan for the return to school.”