Rochester School Superintendent Lesli Myers-Small says she’s been looking at all the facts about COVID-19 as the opening of schools approaches…and decided that all city school students will begin the school year on a remote learning model, not the original hybrid model.
Pre-K 4 and specialized student services will be remote as well as all other classes. This willl be for the first 10 weeks of school, with careful tracking of progress.
Dr. Myers-Small says they looked at the contact tracing and cooperation that would be needed with the Monroe County Health Department, and what all other big-city school districts are doing in making their decision. She says it’s a good decision for the 25,000 city school students, families and staff.
She says every student will have access to a laptop, the needed technology to learn, and plans dedicated to making instruction online stronger. She says that can’t happen if teachers are focused more on taking temperatures and keeping students socially distant than on teaching.