ROCHESTER, N.Y. – While state officials have yet to release guidelines for reopening schools this fall, area superintendents have already been thinking about what changes they can make to keep students safe this fall.
Honeoye Falls-Lima Central School District Superintendent Gene Mancuso and his team are rethinking the middle and high school schedules.
“I like the idea that kids concentrate for a whole month on a particular subject, for example. If we knew that the year was like this, maybe we do social studies in September for some kids and other kids do other areas,” said Mancuso.
They are also considering block scheduling to limit traffic flow throughout the school.
At Hilton Central School District, Superintendent Casey Kosiorek is looking at a similar idea for elementary school students.
“We’re looking at a plan of having teachers actually travel to the students, rather than the students travel to the teacher,” said Kosiorek. To avoid large crowds, Kosiorek said students could stay in their classrooms and staff could bring lunch on a cart to each class.
Kosiorek says a major challenge is figuring out the logistics of transportation. CDC guidelines recommend children be spaced out on buses – one child per row, every other row – which would limit buses to just 11-13 students.
The logistics of performing arts and athletics are also up in the air, but Mancuso says they’ll make it work.
“Every time we ever ask our high school students to comment on what brings them to school, the arts and athletics are the things they talk about most,” said Mancuso.
Both school districts are also developing plans for remote learning and a hybrid of remote learning and in-person learning, but superintendents agree that they want to bring everyone back this fall.
“We believe the safest and best place for students to be is in school and we want to make sure we provide a safe way for them to do that,” said Mancuso.
The specifics of reopening plans depend on what the state decides. After guidelines are released, school districts will submit their reopening plans to the state for approval. School superintendents are hoping the decision comes down soon so they have plenty of time to communicate these plans to families.