“While it’s a difficult one, I think it’s the right decision,” Keene Central School Superintendent Dan Mayberry said.

On March 15, about seven weeks ago, all nine districts in the Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES District and all 16 in the Champlain Valley Educational Services BOCES District agreed to shut down schools and transition to distance learning in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus and to safeguard students’ health. A few days later, on March 18, the state issued a blanket order for all school districts, universities and colleges to close.

Originally, the BOCES districts said schools would be closed at least through April 19-20. But many sectors in New York — this country’s COVID-19 epicenter — remain at a standstill as the number of positive cases rose above 300,000 statewide on Friday.

Though administrators expected the governor to extend the closures, Lake Placid Central School District Superintendent Roger Catania said it’s still a significant blow to the school communities. He said some seniors will never get a chance to go back to their classrooms — and some teachers are retiring without getting a final hug from their students.

“It’s not without some sadness and regret,” Catania said.

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Plans unchanged

Catania said Lake Placid schools’ educational plan, after spring break, was already designed so it could be carried through the end of the year.

The same is true for Keene Central, where students all have access to devices provided by the school and the district plans to continue its distance learning program as well as its food program, according to Mayberry.

Saranac Lake Central School District Superintendent Diane Fox said after the last continuation of school closures, which would have lasted through May 15, her district’s educators decided to start planning as if it was going to be closed for the rest of the year. She said they didn’t think it was good to plan two or four weeks at a time, so this new announcement does not mean anything will be different for students on Monday than on Friday.

Fox said the further the district gets into remote learning, the more technology has become a necessity for all grade levels. She said many students have already received take-home Chromebooks, and any student who wants one can contact the district for one.

“We are watching our instructional team integrating this technology into the lower grades,” Fox said. “Putting young kids with significant screen time, we do have concerns about how valuable that really is, but there are so many free resources right now. Things that the districts pay a fortune for every year are free.”

Fox said teachers have also been learning how to use technology more. She said a teacher told her, “In the (last) 25 years, I’ve never had as much professional development as I’ve had in the last 10 days.”

Catania said many Lake Placid students already have the necessary technology, and that the district has resources for those who do not yet.

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Shifting focus

Fox said teachers have been asked to narrow what they focus on in classes. She said she didn’t want students to become jacks of all trades but masters of none.

“We can’t cover the same information remotely that you can when a student is in front of you,” Fox said. “That became crystal clear early on.”

Fox said kindergarten through sixth-grade teachers are focusing on English language arts and math, and that grade 7 to 12 teachers, who teach in specific instructional areas, are focusing on preparing students for classes in the fall.

She said since Regents exams were canceled this year, teachers are not teaching a wide range of topics that might be on tests. Instead, they’re teaching what students will need to build on next year.

Saranac Lake High School Principal Josh Dann said he wasn’t surprised by the governor’s decision. At this point, he said, reopening schools for in-person classes would have required a lot of planning for just a short period of instruction.