The Covid-19 pandemic has caused school districts across New York State to completely reimagine what teaching and learning will look like come September.
Officials have been working nonstop over the last several weeks to determine reopening plans, which were due in to the state by Friday, but regardless of the details, all of the plans may as well have a big asterisk on the first page, because Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is expected to make a big school-related announcement tomorrow.
"There is definitely a lot of fluidity in what's going on now," Adam Fine, the East Hampton School District assistant superintendent, said during Tuesday's school board meeting.
East Hampton released plans detailing in-person attendance for elementary school children and a hybrid model for middle and high school students in which they will each attend school in person two days with distance learning the rest of the week. It all could still be "dialed down definitively" once the governor makes his announcement tomorrow, Mr. Fine said.
Complicating things at the state level was Governor Cuomo's suggestion earlier this week that schools themselves do Covid-19 testing for students. The news sent East Hampton "into a tailspin," Richard Burns, the school superintendent, said Tuesday. "I don't know how that's possible."
But districts will have no choice but to make it happen, whatever "it" is.
"I feel like it's going to be ever-changing. It's something we all have to adjust to. And we'll adjust, I guess, because what's the alternative?" said Margarette Doyle, a parent of two Springs School elementary students.
In Springs, one tentative plan is to bring children back in person two days a week, with students alternating in cohorts. Even then, it's not set in stone: The district has sent out yet another survey to identify what system is better for most. The "A" group would attend either on Mondays and Tuesdays or on Mondays and Thursdays, while the "B" group would attend either on Thursdays and Fridays or on Tuesdays and Fridays. There will be remote learning on Wednesdays.
Space is the concern for Springs. The school was crowded before the pandemic hit, and there is a major construction project underway. School officials determined last month that they were four classrooms short of being able to bring back large groups of students all at once.
"Springs School will provide substantive interaction between teachers and students, whether instruction is delivered in person, remotely or through a hybrid model with a focus on two major perspectives," the school promises in its plan. Those two perspectives are "educational equity" and "personalized learning."
Ms. Doyle is concerned that the Springs plan says masks are encouraged and recommended, but not required, for children in kindergarten through second grade. Masks will be required in the third grade and up, but one of Ms. Doyle's children will be entering the second grade. "That gives me a little concern, because I would like to see all the kids wearing the masks in the classroom," she said.
Still, Ms. Doyle said, "I feel comfortable with what they're putting forward and that my children will be in the safest environment they could be in, under the circumstances."
Nancy Rowan, another Springs parent, has a concern, too. "There is not a plan in place if one of the students in a cohort goes to the nurse and shows signs of Covid," she said in an interview Tuesday. "That student gets put in an isolation room until they can be picked up. There's no plan in place for the cohort that student left."
She is also worried the amount of time spent with teachers won't be sufficient. "For a middle school kid, it's not enough instruction. It's fair for elementary kids, the younger kids — I think that's okay. But for kids that are getting prepped to go up to algebra and things where they need to be on task, it's not enough."
The Sag Harbor School District has held multiple hours-long meetings online to engage with its families on the issue. Jeff Nichols, the superintendent, said plans will be finalized by Aug. 15. In the interim, Sag Harbor is not enrolling out-of-district residents who would have been paying tuition to attend school in Sag Harbor.
"We should be very transparent. There will be an increase in transmission rates and an increase in infection rates," Mr. Nichols said during Monday's school board meeting. Sag Harbor will "put everything we can in place to responsibly limit exposure. We're doing the best we can . . . to plan for every contingency. I don't have all the answers."
Governor Cuomo previously announced that schools may open in regions where the infection rate stays below 5 percent. Yesterday, the governor reported that the state's daily infection rate was at .87 percent, with Long Island as a region at 1.2 percent. There were just four deaths in New York on Tuesday, none in Suffolk County. Suffolk reported 85 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday, meaning the county has now reached 43,553 cases.
Sag Harbor has multiple possible plans, but seems to be leaning toward an in-person model for students in kindergarten through eighth grade every day, with high schoolers attending in person either on Mondays and Tuesdays or Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesdays will be for deep cleaning the facilities. That has the "most traction," Mr. Nichols said Monday.
Temperature checks for students have emerged as an issue in multiple districts. The question officials are grappling with is should they be done at home by parents, by bus monitors before children board school buses, or at school by staff members?
"If a young elementary student is out at the bus stop and they test positive for a high temperature, whose responsibility is it at that point to make sure the child gets safely back to the house?" asked Robert Hauser, the Bridgehampton School District superintendent.
For Sag Harbor, "In our planning, we would have parents fill out a daily questionnaire through an online platform. A child would be temperature-checked if no questionnaire is received," Mr. Nichols said. "If the school chooses to temperature-check, there will be a staff impact. We can't congregate kids."
And East Hampton school officials are going so far as to inquire with Stony Brook Southampton Hospital whether a Covid-19 testing site could be set up one day per week on its high school campus for students and families, as well as the community at large.
The Bridgehampton School's most-favored plan involves bringing back students in kindergarten through sixth grade every day for in-person classes, and bringing the seventh through 12th graders back in shifts on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with remote learning at other times. The school has applied to the New York State Education Department for permission to erect five huge "Hamptons style tents," Mr. Hauser said, to supplement the limited space the district has while its own construction project is taking place.
Bridgehampton expects to have about 220 students — a few more than last year, including some tuition-paying students. But that also assumes every previously enrolled student will come back, Mr. Hauser said.
"If the governor clarifies the guidelines and allows parents and students to choose in-person or remote, regardless of a medical condition, it remains to be seen how many of our students will elect to participate live or remotely," he said.
That's on Krissy Feleppa's mind, too. The East Hampton parent is wondering how many John M. Marshall Elementary School families will choose virtual learning. "I would be more nervous if they do reopen and all of a sudden there's a full school," she said.
Ms. Feleppa also said that "parents need to honor requests from the school, such as a zero-tolerance policy with sickness, mask wearing, and following all the protocols they're putting in place. Parents really need to be on board, because if people aren't, then that's where we are going to get into trouble."
Many public districts and private schools, including the Montauk School, are planning to create outdoor classrooms. Montauk is expecting to bring back all students in-person but stands ready to implement a hybrid model or distance learning if necessary, according to plans posted on the district website.
At Montauk, "accommodations have been made to lower class sizes where possible and necessary," the plan says. "Students will be kept in class groups as much as possible but exceptions will be made for advanced courses [and] reading groups and math groups as needed. Students will be masked and at 'distanced' desks. In most cases teachers will move to the students except in some classes with specialized classrooms. Desktop separators have been ordered to further protect students and staff. Ventilation in the classrooms will be enhanced with air filters as necessary." The full Montauk School plan is online at montaukschool.org.
In Amagansett, which is expecting its student enrollment to double from last year's enrollment of 75 students, school officials said their priority is "to return students to in-person instruction in the safest manner possible." Families may opt to do distance learning instead of in-person attendance, but if a distance-learning-only model is to resume across the whole school, educators have pledged at least four live Google Meet sessions for students per day. The full plan is online at aufsd.org.