New York State Education Department says district develop their own reopening plans

Five Towns schools await state guidance for reopening plans

Educationally, socially, school is a community, and students need to be back in that environment to succeed.”

Rachel Kreiss President, Lawrence Teachers Association

With schools expected to reopen in roughly five weeks, preparations for a new educational year are in flux, as the two public school districts and yeshivas in the Five Towns await State Education Department guidelines amid an apparently re-strengthening coronavirus pandemic.

On Thursday, after this article went to press: Districts must develop their own reopening plans, state officials saidy, surprising local educators who eagerly had been awaiting guidance on the school year.

Last year, with no vaccine to blunt the virus’s impact, schools were re-quired to create reopening plans that had be ap-proved by the Education Department. In a July 29 letter to schools across the state, Education Commissioner Betty Rosa laid out the department’s current plans.

“The governor’s staff has informed the department that guidance from [the state] Department of Health is in development and the latest guidelines from the Centers of Disease Control will serve as its basis,” Rosa wrote. “So long as allowed by public health officials, schools should be open for in-person teaching and learning, and students should be in school.”

After receiving Rosa’s letter, Lawrence Superintendent Dr. Ann Pedersen sent an email to district staff last Friday, noting that the Education Department had yet to finalize its guidelines and highlighting the Covid safety protocols it asked the state Department of Health to implement, such as the use of masks indoors in lieu of screening and testing; adherence to existing mass-transit masking rules for school-supplied transportation, with no physical distancing; and physical distancing of three feet indoors, where possible.

“There appears to be language that will allow remote instruction for students who excelled in that instructional delivery method, or who have medical needs,” Pedersen told the Herald, adding that she expected the State Education Department guidelines to be issued shortly. Lawrence schools reopen Sept. 2.

Hewlett-Woodmere began the school year last September with a combination of in-person and remote learning, and then moved to full in-person instruction a month later. In-person school is favored by the nearly 300 members of the Hewlett-Woodmere Faculty Association.

“Most important for the fall is that teachers want students back in school, more important than masks and cleaning protocols,” said Ric Stark, the association’s president. “Remote learning was an emergency measure necessitated by a pandemic. It should not be part of the educational toolbox; it was an abject failure.”

A majority of education experts nationwide believe that in-person instruction is the best way for students to learn. A RAND Corporation survey of schools across the country this spring concluded that remote students completed less material and received less in instruction in the core courses of English, math and science compared with students learning in person.

Rachel Kreiss, the newly installed president of the 234-member Lawrence Teachers Association, said her colleagues were “hoping for more normalcy,” meaning in-person instruction. She added that the teachers were prepared for all modes of education.

“The Lawrence district has always risen to the occasion,” Kreiss said, noting that the district went fully remote immediately after being shut down in March 2020. “The district has given us the training and some tools to enhance the remote classroom in terms of technology. My hope is that we are fully in-person. Neither remote nor hybrid replaces being in a classroom. Educationally, socially, school is a community and students need to be back in that environment to succeed.” Hybrid instruction is a combination of online and in-person learning.

Richard Hagler, executive director of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, said he planned to have its schools, which include HALB and the Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys, both in Woodmere; Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls, in Hewlett Bay Park; and the Lev Chana Early Childhood Center, also in Hewlett Bay Park, to be open in person when school begins on Sept. 1. HALB’s schools were open in 2020-21 as well.

“We will follow state guidelines like any other school,” Hagler said, adding that HALB has a medical committee that helps ensure that the schools are following the most up-to-date Covid protocols.

Ari Solomon, executive director of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Far Rockaway, which has an early childhood center and an elementary, middle and high school, said he also expects the buildings to be open on Sept. 1, though he is waiting for state guidance. “We recognize in-person is the best form of education,” Solomon said. “Zoom is very useful in these times [and] at times effective, but last year we didn’t close a building or have classes canceled.”

Hewlett-Woodmere School District Superintendent Dr. Ralph Marino Jr. said he anticipated seeing his schools fully re-open on Sept. 1, but he remained in a holding pattern. “Decisions regarding available modes of instruction cannot be made until the district receives guidance from the state,” he said.

Have an opinion on school reopening plans? Send a letter to jbessen@liherald.com.