Erie School Officials Look For Ways to Safely Offer School Plays and Band Concerts

Erie-region school officials are beginning to look for ways to safely offer extracurriculars like plays and band concerts, Go Erie reports.

Corry Area School District intermediate students recently presented a virtual production of "Mary Poppins Jr." The spring musical was originally set for April, but was postponed due to the health crisis.

"During the initial school closure in the spring, we learned that a school district near Johnstown or Altoona did a virtual production of their spring musical and I thought we could do the same," said Daniel Daum, the Corry Area School District's director of elementary education. "I think these possibilities for high school students are certainly there, and ideas we haven't discussed are there."

The national health agency recommends that school administrators limit participation in activities where social distancing is not feasible, but officials are hoping to still offer some form of these activities for students.

"We want to treat our extracurricular activities identically to how we're treating our athletic teams based on the state and our COVID guidelines," said Chris Hagerty, president of Cathedral Preparatory School and Villa Maria Academy. "We'll use the same protocols we have in place."

"We know extracurricular activities and clubs are an important part of the school experience. We're in the process of evaluating which activities we can offer in-person and which we may be able to offer online, in concert with our health and safety plan," said Erica Erwin, the Erie School District's coordinator of public relations and strategic communications.

Read more on Go Erie.