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Schools Prepare To Welcome Students After 'extraordinary' Year Apart안전놀이터

Following a difficult year upended by the pandemic, Capital Region schools are preparing to welcome nearly all of their students back to the classroom full-time in early September. Educators are trying to make life in the classroom feel as normal as possible, though signs of concern for the virus will be everywhere.

With COVID-19 vaccines available for students ages 12 and up and an abundance of evidence that masking is an effective barrier against transmission in schools, teachers will no longer have to teach in-person and virtual classes simultaneously and students can expect to learn in full classrooms this fall.

“I’m excited to bring all the kids back. The kids need to be in school,” Rensselaer School Superintendent Joseph Kardash said.

Mohonasen Superintendent Shannon Shine is brimming with expectation that the 2021-22 academic year will be unlike any in recent memory, this time for more positive reasons. 

"There's a brand new appreciation for the basic normalcy - no longer will people take it for granted, they're going to be very grateful and engaged in a way that maybe we've never seen before," he said. 

Districts are working with local BOCES organizations and county health departments to plan a coordinated approach to COVID-19 safety. Most reopening plans ease up last year's social distancing standards in order to facilitate in-person learning.

School officials are monitoring community infection rates and have produced "layered" safety protocols that will be adjusted as local COVID-19 cases increase or decline throughout the school year.

Frequent, voluntary surveillance testing of students and staff is a significant part of the plan to track the virus in schools. Parents are strongly encouraged to opt in. 

“We all offer similar plans to keep students and staff as safe as possible,” Watervliet Superintendent Lori Caplan said.

There are some concerns about how to handle a small minority of parents who have vowed to defy the mask mandates when school starts.

Most schools are also unclear on how quarantining will work in September. Last year, stringent Albany County Department of Health guidelines required entire classrooms and buses to be quarantined if there was exposure to someone with the virus, leading to staff shortages and frequent school interruptions. 

Social distancing

Classrooms have been rearranged so that students are now three feet apart instead of six feet. In some classrooms, desks will be rearranged in a pattern that maximizes every square foot to keep students and teachers safe.

Cafeterias are set for six-foot-apart dining so students can take off their masks while eating. That means the traditional lunch break when friends sit together at a single table is out. Gym classes will also be socially distanced.

The Albany City School District plans to use plastic dividers between desks and as an added layer of protection in elementary school classrooms and in settings where three-foot social distancing cannot be maintained. Temperature checks will take place at the door.

Those who ride the school bus should expect a far stricter experience than normal. School officials warn the buses will likely be fuller than last year and every student will be assigned a seat. The seating charts will be used for contact tracing.

Districts across the state are struggling to hire bus drivers and other non-instructional staff as they prepare to reopen at full capacity. Many districts are delaying sports schedules so that bus drivers can return from their normal after-school routes and then do the late pick-up.

In larger districts, many parents are choosing to drive their children to school to avoid COVID-19 exposure. Shenendehowa schools have changed their block schedules to create a longer window for student drop-off. 

Buses will be cleaned after each run during the day.

Mask wearing

Gov. Kathy Hochul this week directed the Department of Health to implement universal masking for all schools in the state, a move that was cheered by organizations that represent administrators and teachers.

Most districts had already announced a universal masking requirement on buses and in school buildings, regardless of vaccination status, but some districts were holding out for a more explicit state mandate.

Masking has become a polarizing topic at board meetings in recent weeks, drawing passionate testimony from parents who believe the face coverings are bad for children.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended universal masking in light of the circulating delta variant, which is blamed for a nationwide surge in coronavirus cases.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends face masks for children over the age of two for protection against COVID-19. Scientists have found no evidence to support the claim that children wearing face masks for COVID-19 are being exposed to dangerous levels of carbon dioxide. 

Hochul also said she is also working to establish a vaccination policy for teachers and school staff across the state. She suggested schools should require the vaccines but allow personnel to opt out by getting tested for the virus weekly. 

Academics

Virtual schools operated by BOCES organizations will be available only for students with medical conditions, but the eligibility criteria vary from district to district and space is limited. Schools are also prepared to revert to virtual instruction in the event of an outbreak.

With many students returning from a year of virtual or hybrid learning, including some with special needs and language barriers who struggled in a virtual setting, districts must contend with learning loss.

Schools have hired back most of the teachers they laid off last year and have added remedial education staff and therapists to address students' "social-emotional" needs. 

Educators intend to prioritize students' mental health and emotional wellness rather than focusing on deficits, according to North Colonie Superintendent D. Joseph Corr.

"I think one of the most important things is to welcome students back and recognize that this has been an extraordinary time, it's been a stressful time, and to acknowledge them and welcome them and make them feel safe and secure — and then begin the learning," Corr said.

Schenectady School Board President Cathy Lewis said the challenge will be "determining exactly where each student is academically, socially, emotionally and so on."

"I would expect that we would spend the first few weeks trying to determine that, kids have been out of school a long time, and there's a re-acclimation that has to take place," she said. "I am concerned with the stop-and-go year with the various remote protocols that might be required."   

Shine, the superintendent in Mohonasen, said the use of lockers at the high school will be optional this school year.

"You don't get assigned before school starts because what we want you to do is run through your schedule for a couple of days, then pick what part of the building you want your locker in because maybe it'll be more convenient to for your route of travel or for your friends" he added.   "That's something we've never tried before, and we thought 'why not?'-  times have changed, let's  give the children more choice." 

Sports & clubs

Most extra-curricular after-school activities, clubs, and sports will be restored, although masks will be required. For high-risk sports, most school districts will require players to be vaccinated.

Shenendehowa's Summer Adventures Musical Theater Camp was full this summer, and students put on three plays. It was a big change from the last school year when students recorded themselves playing instruments and singing and then folded the videos together for virtual performances.

At Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake, elementary school students will be able to enjoy an after-school program that was canceled last fall. The program, offered at every elementary school, provided short courses in fun activities.

“Arts and crafts, or how to knit,” said spokeswoman Tara Mitchell. “It’s not necessarily academic-based. They’re not getting extra help. They’re getting introduced to hobbies.”

Adults will get programs as well.

“For the community, we are starting back up our continuing ed program,” Mitchell said. “Normally it’s in September, but we’re still working on a few things so we’ll probably have it in October.”

Last year, the district – like most – canceled all after-school programs in the fall. Most clubs were virtual even in the spring. But now district officials have decided to restore everything. And it seems that students and adults are ready.

“People are asking for them,” Mitchell said.

Mohonasen's Shine said returning students will have access to a few more clubs and sports, including women's golf as a standalone sport, when most of them return on Sept. 8. 

"There's even more opportunities than ever for students to engage outside of the regular academic day, and we want to keep it that way, he added.

Quarantine 

Shine worries most about quarantining rules and distancing, especially for students who are too young or have opted not to get inoculated. He estimated that more than 90 percent of the faculty and staff in the district are vaccinated. 

"The good news is that I don't anticipate many staff and faculty being quarantined at all because they're almost all vaccinated so when they get into a situation that they're exposed to a COVID-positive person, unless they are actually symptomatic, they're not going to be quarantined, and the same is true for my secondary students 16 and above who are eligible for the vaccine," said Shine.

He said Mohonasen is relying heavily on guidance from the Schenectady County Health Department.

"If it's bus, if it's a classroom, depending on if people are masked, unmasked, or maybe they're having a mask break for example, it is going to be a 3- or 6-feet radius as opposed to last year (when) we were seeing them quarantine an entire bus an entire class, a sports team."