BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Schools had to prepare three different reopening strategies to submit to the New York State Department of Health: full-time in person learning, a hybrid instructional model, and full-time remote learning.
“The options are listed in our plan. We'll probably have a little bit of each to make it happen,” said Richard Hughes, Superintendent of Frontier Central School District.
Schools have submitted plans for each possible outcome Friday. These plans are also posted online.
Which school reopening plan do you think would work best for your child? The hybrid model combines both remote and in person learning @WKBW
— Olivia Proia (@OliviaProia) July 31, 2020
“Just like every single student is different and unique, we have to have an educational plan for each individual student, not just put them through a system,” Hughes said.
While full-time in person and remote learning plans are similar across Western New York schools, the hybrid model vastly varies from district to district. For example, Niagara Falls, Frontier, and Amherst all have different plans.
“Our plan is to return students to school half of the class. Wednesday is a cleaning sanitizing remote day of synchronous and asynchronous learning, then Thursday and Friday a return of the class. That would be the other half of the class,” said Mark Laurrie, Superintendent of Niagara Falls City Schools.
“That's one of our options. That'll probably be more applied to our elementary and middle. Our high school is probably going to be every other day if we go with the hybrid beast,” Hughes said.
Amherst also plans to combine face-to-face learning with distance learning. Students will be broken into two cohorts, one attends school in person Monday and Thursday, with remote instruction on Tuesday and Friday. The second cohort does the opposite. All students will learn from home on Wednesday. Yet, those plans are subject to change.
“The word this year is going to be flexible,” Hughes said.
“I think it puts in the best place to either expand and add more or retract if things aren't going well. It gets us back into the game of educating students in school,” Laurrie said.
Governor Cuomo is expected to make a decision on schools re-opening next week.
