With the school year wrapping up under coronavirus lockdown, state education leaders are getting an appeal for information on “how” schools might be able to reopen for the start of the next school year this fall.

“We sure would like a heads up,” Honeoye Falls-Lima School Superintendent Gene Mancuso said.

Mancuso explained that local schools are eager to get back to teaching, in person, but desperate for guidance from the state on how they’re supposed to make it happen.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has given schools till July to come up plans to safely reopen in the fall but on Twitter, Mancuso appealed for specifics saying Schools need Phase Four guidance now.

“We can be way more flexible than people imagined in the past. But, again, we need to know those rules so we can prepare better,” Mancuso said.

Starting Monday, the State Education Department plans to start regional task force meetings to go over reopening issues. And the first meeting will include a focus on Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Genesee, Wayne and Yates Counties.

Mancuso said he has high hopes for clarity for addressing questions like socially distanced school buses, personal protective gear, students or staff with health issues.

Also money. With some estimates saying coronavirus precautions could cost school districts an additional $500 per student.

“We are in an economic crisis,” Mancuso said. “So if I have to provide masks and gear and more services, I’m going to have to shift money from somewhere else in order to these things. So the sooner we know that the better prepared we can be.”

Interim Education Commissioner Shannon Tahoe said in a statement, “The input we receive from task force members at the regional meetings will inform our work as we develop the guidance and regulatory changes that schools need.

Mancuso says schools have made dramatic progress dealing with the coronavirus lockdown, embracing steps like distance learning, but he said they want to be able to tell parents what to expect this fall, as soon as possible, which means getting answers now.

“There are tensions around the whole country and schooling is no different,” he said.  “Trying to give everyone a chance to regroup and settle in for what we hope is the new normal.”

— WHEC