LOCKPORT, N.Y. (WKBW) — It’s not the education Hugh Carroll said he pictured for his six-year-old daughter, Alaina.
She sits at a desk in her living room while her teacher gives remote instruction.
The first grader is a hybrid student at Anna Merritt Elementary School in Lockport.
She was scheduled to go fully remote next week.
“I have a GED. I don’t have the knowledge or the tools and I’m expected to oversee her education at this point.”
According to the Lockport City School District’s website, it had planned to go remote beginning December 14 for the following reasons:
- An increase in confirmed cases within LCSD.
- An increase in parents and older students requesting a change from the hybrid instructional model to the remote instructional model.
- An increase in the absenteeism rate among students.
- Staffing constraints due to precautionary quarantining by local health departments and a substitute teacher shortage.
- A proactive plan to contain the spread of the virus in our schools.
But Wednesday, the district reversed course and said it would continue its hybrid instruction.
In an email to parents obtained by 7 Eyewitness News, Superintendent Michelle Bradley said the decision to not go fully remote came after the district “seriously considered parent feedback and closely watched surrounding districts plans for re-opening next week.”
Bradley declined our request for an interview. But, in an email to 7 Eyewitness News Reporter Ali Touhey, she wrote “Although there has been a rise in cases in Niagara County and anticipation of a yellow, orange or red zone designation through Governor Cuomo’s micro-cluster strategy, it has not happened. The in-person hybrid instructional model will remain in place, and the Lockport City School District will continue to closely monitor our District’s data relating to absenteeism and staffing constraints as a result of positive cases.“
