BUFFALO (WBEN) - "Now, we must get our students back in school, in person, five days a week," said Buffalo Schools Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash at a school board meeting Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier Wednesday, the district revealed its plans to bring students back to the classroom full-time starting in the fall for the first time since spring of 2020.
"Beginning September 8, 2021, our expectation is that all Buffalo Public School Pre-K – 12 students will return to in-person instruction five days per week, following appropriate Center for Disease Control and New York State Department of Health guidelines," the district said in a letter to parents. "Over the summer, district staff will work tirelessly to ensure your child returns to an intellectually and culturally rich building atmosphere that is safe and welcoming!"
Cash said children who are enrolled will automatically enter the full-time in-person learning instruction model and that remote instruction will only be offered for students with an eligible medical exemption after consultation with medical professionals and district staff.
"I'm really excited," said parent activist Jessica Bauer Walker. "It has been really, really difficult with our kids not being in school. I've been working full-time plus as a community health worker; I'm a single parent, and I know that so many of our families have struggled to be trying to work and keep our kids healthy, safe and learning over the pandemic, so I'm really welcoming the return to school."
In an effort to emphasize that the district doesn't want to count its chickens just yet, Cash noted that this decision is simply based on what we know now, and as the pandemic has proven to be unpredictable, things could change between now and the start of the school year.
"All that I say, God willing, and I say it with assumption that the federal and state guidelines that are operable today will be operable in early September," said Cash.
Bauer Walker explained how important the return to school will be for her kids and other students in the district, saying these past 14-15 months have negatively impact all aspects of health.
"It's been incredibly difficult," she began. "My kids are middle schoolers, which is a difficult time to start with, and they really need that peer interaction. They're not little kids, and they're not big kids, but they were really stuck, and that's what we've heard from our young people in general - the little kids are really acting out with regressive behaviors to the older kids having a lot of challenges with mental health, this has really taken a toll on our kids."
