Reopen? Yes. But how?

LMCS faces challenges for 2020-21

By Demi Budd and Osei Helper | Manor Ink

Livingston Manor, NY – The arrival of the coronavirus brought many changes. These were all quite jarring. From wearing masks to staying six feet apart, this time has been a period of adjustment for everyone.         

One of these changes was the switch to remote learning for schools. When the news that the remainder of the school year would take place from home came in mid-March, many were thrown off guard. Teachers and students made it work, though, believing that in-person learning would resume only a few weeks later. But the date of the return kept extending, and eventually remote learning was required for the rest of the school year.

So what happened during those three months of strict, through-the-screen teaching and learning? Manor Ink talked not only to Livingston Manor Central School’s students, but also its teachers, principal, and the District’s superintendent to learn about their experiences and to get their outlook for the future.

Part 1: The shutdown

On March 25, all US public schools closed due to the pandemic. This closure kept on extending in two-week intervals. Eventually, it lasted until the end of the school year.

The shift didn’t come easily to anyone at LMCS. Students, teachers and even the principal and superintendent all had their own struggles and successes with it. They also all had ideas for the future.

Regarding the shift in the spring, sophomore-to-be Jocelyn Mills said, “I’d have to think really hard about it if I had to find something I liked about remote learning.”

She was also one of the many students who had to have her work delivered to her. Remote learning relies heavily on students owning a computer and having a stable internet connection. There were accommodations for students who didn’t have access to those, but they weren’t the most convenient.

“I didn’t get the work at the beginning of the week,” Mills explained. “I’d get it on Wednesday, and I would still be expected to have it done by Friday.”

On top of getting the work late, Mills also struggled with it. As virtual classes were not mandatory, students were left with assignments dropped in Google Classroom with little to no direction on how to do them. With due dates in bright red letters on the screens, students were often left rushing to complete the work and depending on external websites or fellow students to provide them with the answers needed to complete assignments.

Mills felt that she did not actually learn anything during this time. Because of this lack of structure, she felt stress turning in assignments and completing the associated quizzes and tests on concepts she never fully grasped.

“Because of the complications of online schooling, I went from a straight-A student to being on High Honor Roll.” This meant that her average dropped to 93 or below. She used to be on Superintendents’ List, which requires a 95 or above average.

Of course, not every student struggled with remote learning. Some flourished during this time due to the newfound independence and the lack of rigid structure.

It didn’t start off easy for now-junior Kristina Davis. “At first, I was trying to bundle it all on Monday, and then get it done so I could have the rest of the week off,” said Davis. “Then I’m like, ‘I shouldn’t do that,’ so I changed it up.”

Kristina had the luxury of being able to do her work online. This allowed her to better manage her time. Over the course of remote school day, she worked out a schedule to help herself better manage when she did her work. “I did a class per day, so it would be Earth Science on Monday, English on Tuesday.”

Even though Davis didn’t have too much trouble with distance learning and even boosted her grades, she shared a similar issue with Jocelyn Mills. “It was very difficult to learn new material,” Davis said. “I felt like I wasn’t learning anything.”

LMCS teachers’ experiences

Paul Favata, teacher of high school Chemistry, Earth Science and College Biology, and Tiffany Gillman, teacher of ninth and tenth grade English spoke about their thoughts on the switch to distance learning.

Both of them were surprised by the shutdown, but they jumped into action right away making preparations. Gillman collaborated with the other English teachers by providing all high school students with the same book to read and analyze.

“We hoped that having the students all read the same book would not only allow us teachers to collaborate, but would also provide a shared experience for students that might give them a way to connect during the extended closure,” Gillman explained.

Favata reached out to his students right away. He let them know what he was trying to plan and kept them posted about his progress and how classes would be structured. Along with keeping in contact via email and telephone with students, he also set up Google Chats so students in each of his classes could communicate with one another about their work.

As a science teacher, Favata’s classes are all quite hands-on, especially when it comes to lab work. But it was difficult to reproduce that experience during this time.

“I think the most interesting and exciting part of science is lab work, which became almost impossible with my limited knowledge and experience with the online curriculum,” said Favata. “I resorted to labs that used computer simulators, labs that involved watching someone else perform the experiment using YouTube videos, and providing data for labs and then asking students to analyze that data,” he said. But none of those was as engaging as actually performing the experiments. “I have lots of favorite labs, and it was certainly disappointing that I wasn’t able to share those with my students this year.”

Their students’ grades have varied. Some students flourished with the greater independence, while others struggled with the lack of structure. Many in his class, Favata said, continued with the same grades they were getting when classes met at school.

A challenge for administrators

Shirlee Davis, principal of LMCS, had some words to say on the matter as well. Her first thoughts upon hearing the news about switching to online learning were how to balance instruction with the needs of students, their families and the staff. Davis had faith in her teachers and the community. “I felt confident we could pull together to meet the needs of our students,” she said.

Teachers themselves have been taking online classes to learn how to do remote learning better. They were still working full time during the closure.

Superintendent John Evans also shared his thoughts about remote learning. Receiving the initial news was a shock. “Wow!” he said his thoughts were at the time. “This is gonna be interesting.”

Moving past that first reaction, he explained that the administration’s main focus was on everyone’s needs: how are we going to do this?

A Superintendent’s Day had been scheduled on Mar. 16, a day that coincided with the closing. The timing gave them “a day jump on everything.”

With the remote learning required, everyone faced a steep learning curve. Teachers received a message from the administration encouraging them to try new things in an effort to figure out what worked and what didn’t. Teachers from the elementary, middle school, and high school levels all shared their methods and found that Zoom meetings worked best for everyone.

Another issue teachers and the administration faced was accommodating the specific situations of some students. Not all households had the same access to technology. What Evans and others thought would work for all students in some cases did not.

“It was a constant learn-as-we-go process. I think everybody did the best they could, given the circumstances,” he said.

Part 2: Reopening LMCS

Looking at a future where remote learning might very well continue, Evans, Davis and their teachers all have things they’d like to implement or do differently than they did in the spring.

“Hopefully, if we return to remote learning, we will have more time to develop the curriculum and to learn new platforms for delivery of instruction that will enhance student engagement and performance,” English instructor Tiffany Gillman said. “I would also hope that regular student attendance at Google Meets could be a requirement.”

“Student accountability is important,” agreed Shirlee Davis. “I would like to ensure everyone takes the initiative to participate in their education.”

As for Paul Favata, the science teacher, one of his priorities is recreating the in-person experience of being in the lab as closely as possible. “I would definitely want to have a better plan for labs,” Favata said. “Also, I would like to find ways to develop student collaborations, maybe involving more projects and less traditional testing.”

Ideally, these efforts won’t be necessary every day, as both Evans and Davis hope that in-person education will be an option for LMCS.

“I would like to see students in our building at least part of the time, if we can do that safely. Human beings are social, and we learn through social interaction,” Davis said.

Multiple plans required

Reopening is obviously a hot topic, and continuing with online instruction only may have an adverse affect on the mental health of students. Davis plans to meet more often with staff and students in small groups in order to check up on them.

Evans and the reopening committee, consisting of many of the staff of LMCS, are already in action. They are faced with creating not one, but three plans for the 2020-21 school year. The state has mandated that schools develop a plan for in-person learning, remote-learning and a hybrid plan combining the two, and submit them to the state Board of Education by July 31.

During Manor Ink’s Zoom-held interview, Evans displayed a stack of regulatory guidelines – 200-plus pages specifying what the three plans must adhere to. Those plans haven’t been easy to develop, but Evans believes that being a small school will actually help LMCS in the process.

“Our small class sizes, combined with a number of large classrooms should make social distancing manageable. There’s room for plastic ‘shields’ to be installed between students,” he explained.

In the case that in-person schooling is not an option, or that hybrid-education will be implemented, Evans has plans for that situation, too.

“For each grade level, we are working to identify what good remote instruction looks like,” he said. “We’re putting together a framework that all teachers are going to follow. The first time around, we were kind of just making it up as we went along. Now, what we’re doing is taking what we’ve learned and laying that out.”

Additional Chromebooks, small laptop computers, have been ordered for students who do not have access to technology. Some classrooms will be equipped with video conferencing equipment so a better quality remote learning experience can be provided.

“This has been one heck of a learning experience and we continue to learn more each day,” Evans said in closing. “While a great deal of time and energy is going into developing our reopening plans, these plans must be fluid and we need to continuously update them as the guidance and situation change.”

NY issues guidelines, but no funds

Albany, NY – Gov. Andrew Cuomo has now released some more guidelines on school reopening: Schools will reopen if the infection rate is below 5 percent for two weeks. Schools will close if it’s above 9 percent for one week.

If schools do open, face coverings are strongly recommended, except during meals and classroom instruction with social distancing. In situations where social distancing isn’t possible, masks are required. Thankfully, Cuomo advises schools to plan “mask breaks” for students when they can socially distance.

To promote social distancing, gyms and other spaces where students tend to be close must be reconfigured.

Daily screenings are required. Temperature checks will monitor possible symptoms in students and staff. In the case of any positive cases, schools must notify their local Department of Health. Schools must comply with and participate in the state’s contact tracing program as well. Any infected or exposed areas of the school must be cleaned and disinfected to prevent spreading.

Gov. Cuomo continues to make quite successful efforts to contain the coronavirus and keep New Yorkers safe. One of his more controversial efforts, however, presents itself in his partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Let’s start talking about really revolutionizing education – and it’s about time,” he said back in May, after announcing the partnership.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is reported to be the largest private foundation in the world, holding $46.8 billion in assets. The foundation’s mission in the United States is to “ensure that all people – especially those with the fewest resources – can access the opportunities they need to succeed in school and life.”

This partnership has come been met with much scrutiny. Organizations including the New York State Allies for Education, Class Size Matters and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy have written letters to Cuomo in opposition to it. The foundation has pushed multiple controversial education initiatives: Common Core, standardized testing, new teacher evaluations and teacher pay based on student test scores being just a few of them.

Cuomo claims that partnering with the Gates Foundation will bring forth a better understanding on how to “capitalize on technology.” This is an effort to improve education for students in terms of not just remote learning and the technology needed, but for creating an overall “smarter” education system even when schools reopen.

Superintendent Evans is less sanguine about the governor’s initiative. “We’ve been given zero resources. Everything we’ve been asked to do is with no additional funding. We’re being asked to do a lot more,” he said. “With all of the health and safety protocols we’ve been asked to put in place ... up until now, we’ve been given no additional resources. We need to figure out how to do it with what we have.”

The reopening of schools and remote learning is definitely a three-dimensional topic. With so many requirements and variables, schools can only wait to see where the rest of this month and the next will take them.