After-school activities take a back seat
Consideration of getting students back to a social and extracurricular schedule is weeks away from discussion.
Consideration of getting students back to a social and extracurricular schedule that remotely resembles prepandemic tradition is still weeks away from discussion.
The update was provided by Superintendent Paul Padalino last week during a video conference session.
“I think that’s ... for an August conversation,” he said. “Our focus right now is looking at the school date, what it’s going to look like, who’s coming to school, what is our hybrid model looking like, what does our remote plan look like, then being able to add on the supplemental things that we do.”
Padalino said the focus has been on completed a state-mandated reopening plan for scenarios that include an entirely remote academic setting, entirely inperson classes, and a combination of the two.
“There’s a lot of things that are going to change in September if and when we open buildings,” he said. “Live events, guest speakers, classroom helpers, field trips, visitors to the building ... are things that are going to have to wait until we pass this state of emergency.”
Officials with the New York State Public High School Athletic Association earlier this month announced that fall sports programs that would have begun Aug. 24 can not begin until Sept. 21, with that date tentative based on state guidance as evaluations of COVID-19 cases. There will also not be state or regional championship.
Padalino noted that state officials have not provided answers to questions about Regents exams but the district will be moving forward as if the testing will be conducted.
“We know that they were not administered last year,” he said. “We don’t know if they’re be administered in January ... or June (of 2021),” he said. “That’s a decision made at the state Education Department level.
We will be ... teaching to the New York state standards.”
Padalino said there are expected to be creative adaptations for programs such as ceramics that would ordinarily require students to be on site.
“We’ll work with Art Department and the high school administration and get the input from the people who do the teaching and see what we can do around this,” he said. “Maybe it’s something where ceramics isn’t something we can offer, we have to offer something else in place of that class. One of our teachers may have a perfectly good idea that I just don’t know of, yet.”
Another change will be the orientation events that will have parents and teachers introduced via video conference instead of inside the classrooms.
“There will not be in-person back-to-school nights,” Padalino said. “As far as bringing groups of people into the building, we won’t be doing that at any level.”