Five Towns schools plan to operate more like it’s 2019

Five Towns schools plan to operate more like it’s 2019

With the start of new school year, there is a return to a sense of normalcy for students, faculty and staff after two-plus years of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Every member of the Lawrence community is wildly important to us.”

Ann Pedersen, Lawrence superintendent

With the start of new school year, there is a return to a sense of normalcy for students, faculty and staff after two-plus years of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Remote learning highlighted the 2019-20 academic year. The 2020-21 year was a blend of in-person and remote instruction, along with masks, social distancing and hand sanitizer. Last year saw loosened restrictions because of the vaccination.

“The state has rolled back to what the guidance was in 2019 following the CDC guidelines,” Hewlett-Woodmere School District superintendent Ralph Marino Jr. said at a Superintendent’s Roundtable at the Center for Adult Life Enrichment in Hewlett on Aug. 25. “I’m very, very excited.”

Marino pointed to the Freshmen Focus day at Hewlett High School on Aug. 24, where 200 students mingled and were introduced to high school life as one of the many benchmarks of returning to normal.

“Football started practice and all the sports will be practicing (this) week,” he said, adding that in an effort to accommodate everyone’s needs a combination of masks, social distancing and plexiglass dividers will likely be used.

With an increasing return to normalcy, Lawrence School District Superintendent Ann Pedersen said that the goal for every learner is to be successful by setting and achieving their goals.

“Every member of the Lawrence community is wildly important to us,” Lawrence School District Superintendent Ann Pedersen said. “We look forward to the school year and to helping our students make wildly important goals and measuring their success towards them.”

Pedersen said the school district will retain use of specific tools.
“The ability to meet people electronically in Google Meets can help facilitate conversations quickly between stakeholders but also highlight a deep appreciation for the human connection that in-person learning allows for,” she said.

Joshua Gold, principal of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway Middle School, trumpeted the manner in which all the HAFTR schools dealt with the pandemic. HAFTR includes a high school, an elementary school and an early childhood center.

“We were very proud of the way our school was able to pivot quickly in the early stages of Covid to continue to facilitate a rigorous and meaningful Jewish and general studies educational program and maintain a strong sense of school community,” he said.

Gold said new tools will be incorporated into the schools’ educational program, going forward.

“Covid has provided our team with an opportunity to become adept at utilizing a variety of technological tools and platforms that will continue to serve us well in developing creative lessons and learning opportunities for students,” he said.

Raz Levin, Head of School at the Brandeis Hebrew Academy (formerly The Brandeis School) said the school is extremely excited to welcome everyone back to the Lawrence campus. He said the academy endured a lot as a result of the pandemic, noting exciting things are coming for the upcoming year.

“The team behind the scenes worked to ensure that students felt a sense of normalcy throughout the pandemic while keeping our Brandeis family safe to the best of our ability,” Levin said. “We have expanded our STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, match), enhanced our Judaic studies programming, and continue to create a culture of inclusion, acceptance, and respect in an environment where students are nurtured and thriving.”

He noted various health and safety protocols implemented through the past two years will be retained. “We found that some changes, while they began due to Covid restrictions, seemed to work much more efficiently, and so there are several aspects which will remain even after the mask mandates and social distance guidelines have been lifted,” he said.

With the Covid pandemic on the wane, Levin looks forward to positioning the Brandeis Hebrew Academy as a unique school in the Five Towns for another 92 years, welcoming Jewish families and continuing the legacy of offering a modern orthodox education.

“Our goal is to continue to grow and provide students with a stellar education in both general and Judaic studies in a modern orthodox environment where every child,” Levin said, “no matter their level of Jewish observance, feels empowered, heard, safe and respected.”