BUFFALO (WBEN) - On Thursday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that schools will remain closed for the remainder of the academic school year.
LATEST: Pennsylvania schools will stay closed for the rest of the academic year, Gov. Tom Wolf announces.Learning will continue online and families can still pick up meals at designated sites. https://t.co/b0ZhePVIll pic.twitter.com/L2xmBmfIaV
— ABC News (@ABC) April 9, 2020
With Pennsylvania schools closing their doors for the rest of the year, it begs the question about what should be done in New York State. Governor Cuomo has made no such commitment even though New York currently has roughly 140,000 more confirmed cases of coronavirus than the Keystone State. Cuomo has instead opted for a more incremental approach to the extended closure, expanding the duration in two-week periods.
At a board meeting on Wednesday, Buffalo Schools Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash said that approach has been frustrating.
"What does hurt us is this 'every two weeks,' we don't know...what we're going to do," said Cash.
Larry Scott serves as a member at large for the Buffalo Board of Education, and he believes it's time for New York to take the Pennsylvania route.
"My number-one obligation as a parent and as a board member is the safety of our students, our families, or staff," said Scott. "When I look at the data and look at the projections in front of me and see that it doesn't look like things are going to be improving greatly in the near future, the risk is just too great for me to believe that we could return safely by the end of this school year.
"I believe that it would be the best decision to make a call for all schools to be closed for the remainder of this year in New York State," he continued.
"I may be the eternal optimist, but I think it's still a little too early," Laurrie said. "I like the way the governor has been closing them in two-week increments. The inevitable may come, but I think it's too early to make that call now. When might that be? I would think by the middle of May."
Laurrie believes that students deserve to experience some of the rights of passage that go along with the end of the school year, even if that means bringing them back for just a few weeks.
"If that was ever possible, and I hope and pray that it is, I think it's very worth it to have students come back for a month," he said. "There's a lot of reasons why I say that - number one, in life, work, jobs and school, you need closure. We need to put a wrap on the year, and I'm not talking about just with final exams, I'm talking about a bond built between student and teacher, and it's a good way to close."
There is a balance between closure and cost, though.
The Buffalo School District is facing significant financial trouble, and Scott says closing schools right now will help to alleviate some of their burden.
"One more big thing that goes beyond the safety and the social/emotional impact of this, and that's the economic impact," Scott said. "With the state finalizing their budget and economically being impacted by this crisis, Buffalo Public Schools right now is facing up to a $90 million deficit for the coming school year, and we need to find a way to close that deficit.
"If we had a determination to close our schools right now for the remainder of the year, we potentially could save up to $30 million, almost $40 million," Scott added. "That would help us close that deficit, and also, I think it's important because if we have to come back in the summer and provide some intensive summer school instruction and then we return next year, with what our kids have gone through, our families have gone through, it would be extremely detrimental for them to have to come back to cuts in services and staff."
While Laurrie notes that money would certainly be saved if schools were to close indefinitely for the academic year, he believes ending the school year the right way for students goes beyond the financial impact of the decision.
"I wouldn't make a budget statement based on the fact that I want kids to have closure, kids to feel like they've completed something, kids to have the opportunity to do something," said Laurrie. "While our budget in Niagara Falls, based on the freeze in foundation aide, is really going to be a challenge, I would never put that on the backs of students."
