New York school reopening presents academic and safety concerns

The deadline for New York state school districts and schools to submit the three state mandated school reopening plans is July 31, and what those plans will include has generated much discussion. The plans are for in-person instruction, remote learning and a hybrid of the two.

Primary concerns focus on how to deliver the academic instruction and maintain safety. Woodmere resident Matthew Russo said he is torn between sending his sons, Max, 12, and Ethan, 10, back to school because of the coronavirus pandemic, but understands that in-school instruction is better than distance learning.

“I noticed that my sons’ grades slipped due to online learning but there was no other alternative,” he said. “We have to keep our kids safe so that’s the situation we face due to Covid 19. I think children learn better in school with the teachers direction but it’s complicated with online learning because you have children having to figure out on their own and that’s not always easy at home compared to the classroom, but in the middle of Covid-19 we have to put safety as a top priority.”

Matthew Sharin, from Atlantic Beach, will be a Lawrence High School sophomore when school gets under way. He noted a rush to reopen schools could be a “lose-lose situation” as it could lead to a spike and eradicate the progress Long Island has made. 

“However, if online learning or hybrid of some in-person and online instruction is used, students will continue to fall farther behind in many crucial subjects,” he said. “I can tell from experience that strictly online learning has proven to only be partially effective, but much inferior to a normal school schedule, as without an equal level of testing and homework it is harder to remember things, and given reduced hours much review time is sacrificed even while less curriculum is completed.”

Sharin thinks that many of his peers might be less willing to attend online classes if the instruction offered is a combination of in-person and remote learning, and said the instruction time is used more for review of previous lessons not new material.

“In addition, it will be difficult to enforce the constant wearing of masks, especially in younger children, both in classrooms and on buses,” he said. “Overall, I think that it will be very difficult to start the next school year, and the effects on students could last for a long time as they not fully learn or retain many important topics.”

Lawrence Superintendent Dr. Ann Pedersen said that balancing the need  to deliver instruction to students from kindergarten to high school and ensuring that everyone in the school buildings are safe are the issues. “The challenge for the district is where is that definition of who is at risk,” she said. “Honestly, everyone is at high risk. A student could go home and be impacting an older relative or at-risk person could live with the children. That to me is a quite a challenge.”

Pedersen said that Lawrence is in good shape instruction-wise with all the Chromebooks with hot spots issued to the students during the spring and the teachers can build on the remote learning that was done after schools were physically closed in mid-March.

The hybrid model is the working theory Pedersen said, adding that a majority of school districts are considering dividing classes into A and B groups that could rotate between in-class and remote instruction that would be livestreamed. “We know what remote looks like, we know what full in-person instruction looks like, the hybrid is new,” she noted, saying that it would be challenging for those in kindergarten, first and second grades.