BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Despite the ever-changing, sometimes daily, circumstances with the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts are forced to make quick decisions on their operations, including the chance that remote learning will continue in the fall.
"The stakes are a little bit higher this year in terms of having a foot in each school year because it's been so different," Michael Cornell, Hamburg Schools Superintendent and President of the Erie Niagara Superintendents Association, said. "Most of us who operate in some type of hybrid model as we sit here in early-February...are anticipating not being in a hybrid model next year and being able to resume a little bit more of a normal operation."
No school official can definitely say what will be policy a month from now, let alone when kids return to the classroom in September. Cornell said much of what happens with the fall depends on the public health circumstances and guidance that comes from the New York State Education Department. For example, NYSED requires schools to have masks in school and to mandate social distancing.
Niagara Falls Schools Superintendent Mark Laurrie told WBEN they've begun preparing for next school year. Even before then, though, he's worried about what will happen for summer school.
"In some form, summer programs and summer schools are going to have to be open and optioned for parents and families and kids," Laurrie said. "I can't envision not having summer school as a bridge to the start of the next school year."
More than 2 million New Yorkers have received the vaccine as of Monday. Teachers are among the groups who are eligible to get the vaccine. Laurrie said staff should be vaccinated by the fall, which would mean more students can come back.
"We have got to put this learning and mental health pandemic before the current health pandemic when it comes to September because that is going to be a train that is barreling at us," Laurrie said. "The learning pandemic along. If we don't address it with more kids in school, especially in the younger grades, we're going to be further behind in this whole process than we believed."
Both superintendents said that in-person learning is the best model to learn. Laurrie said he hopes it can be utilized in the future because some students, particularly in high school, are better equipped to learn under a remote model.
"Maybe it's four days of remote and one day where they come in and do some hands-on things," Laurrie said. "There will be a need for that. If we don't think that way, we're going to be out of business as educators in pretty short order."
Cornell said there has been some benefits to remote learning, but it is not the long-term answer for education.
"Students miss that true sense of belonging that allows them to be in school every day," Cornell said. "The lack of proximity, particularly with younger children, our younger children really lament the loss of the ability to sit right next to their classmate and learn together."
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top public health expert, said late last month the Biden administration hopes to begin vaccinating children by late spring or early summer.
