WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. (WBEN) - Hundreds of Williamsville students and several parents expressed their dismay about remote learning on the first day that students between fifth and twelfth grades were supposed to exclusively begin online learning.
The protest Tuesday outside of the district's main offices saw students with homemade signs with a want to return to the hybrid model of learning. Students said remote learning isn't effective.
"I've been to my first two periods and they're just reiterating the school procedures," Anna Conway, a senior at Williamsville South, told reporters. "They have to continue teaching the remote students who are online. We have to go back to square one and learn all the introductions, school procedures, and stuff. It's like we started the week over and the past week didn't exist."
Other students told WBEN they were having connection issues with remote learning.
Reopening efforts by Williamsville have been heavily scrutinized for its lack of transparency and for not adequately planning. Shortly before the school year began, the board of education unanimously placed Superintendent Scott Martzloff on administrative leave. Late last week, the district announced they would no longer provide hybrid learning for students in fifth grade and older. Because there was no longer a need for the hybrid model, the district effectively rejected 43 teachers who applied to the district on Monday, leaving some without employment.
"We feel the remote model should have been our last option and we were thrown into this without consideration of any other models," Diana Stone, a 16-year-old student at Williamsville East, said. "We want to go to school for as long as we can. That's how we learn. We're just disappointed that it wasn't the fault of the pandemic, it was our own fault of poor planning and promising these remote kids things we couldn't promise. Here we are."
Michelle McKinstry, a parent of an eighth grade and a senior, said the district has failed the students.
"I participated with the reopening committee," McKinstry said. "I spent a great deal of time in July trying to come up with a plan that would accommodate everybody. That didn't work. There's absolutely no reason for the mess we're in right now. The hybrid kids don't need to be pulled from school for Williamsville to figure out how to get remote kids education. There were a lot of options tossed out."
There was a noticeable amount of support for the ousted Martzloff. A cardboard cutout that read "We Stand With Scott" was taped over the district offices sign and multiple parents and students said the blame could not be pinned on him.
The students plan to organize a protest again if they are not given communication from Acting Superintendent John McKenna.
"We're just looking for answers," Conway said.
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