The Pittsburgh public school district is having students do remote, “asynchronous” learning from Wednesday through Friday during the NFL draft.
The NFL draft runs from Friday through Sunday, and school officials said the city is expecting around 700,000 visitors. By comparison, Pittsburgh has an estimated 310,000 residents, per the city’s website.
Keeping kids out of schools, officials said last month, “will help reduce transportation challenges, minimize disruptions to school operations, and ensure students can continue learning safely and effectively.”
Asynchronous learning means that Pittsburgh students will be getting assignments and learning activities digitally to then complete on their own, school officials said. Synchronous learning, by comparison, refers to kids getting instruction and participating in a class remotely over video in real time.
Parent Sonja Smith, who is against the remote learning overall because of how close her family lives to her child’s school, told NPR that she nevertheless approved of the remote learning being asynchronous.
“I feel like when it’s synchronous, so much of the day is just, ’My mute doesn’t work. My message doesn’t work. Really, it just turns into a time suck for everyone,” Ms. Smith told NPR.
Pittsburgh’s recreation centers will open early at 8 a.m. to help accommodate kids doing remote learning. The centers will have boosted WiFi, supplies, meals and activities available as well, Pittsburgh Parks & Recreation said on Facebook.
The coming of the draft also led officials to alter the schedule for doing the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment exams.
The state math tests for students in third through eighth grade was moved up to Monday and Tuesday. The English language-arts tests for students in third through eighth grade and the science test for fifth-graders and eighth-graders will now take place between next Tuesday and May 4, school officials said.
Schools also closed in Green Bay, Wisconsin, home of the eponymous Green Bay Packers, when the city hosted the 2025 NFL draft.
“The draft is closing public school for two days — that just shows you the size of [the] draft. It kind of shows you where [the] draft is today. That an entire community is going to stop and, for those three days, they’re going to focus on football,” NFL Global Head of Major Events Production Jon Barker told NBC News.
