PARENTS BRIEFED VIA ZOOM

Oneonta’s ‘Hybrid’ Plan

Allows Parents To Keep

Children Out Of School

‘We’re Giving … A Choice,’ Brindley Says

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – If the Oneonta School District reopens, as planned, on Oct. 13, parents can still keep their children at home, learning remotely, moms and dads learned at last evening’s Zoom public hearing on the reopening plan.

“Many districts who plan to open in hybrid, your child has to be there,” said Superintendent Thomas Brindley in one of three parent briefings Governor Cuomo ordered when allowing schools to reopen.  “We’re giving parents a choice.”

If the school district is able to open in a hybrid format – based on factors including the number of cases, state and county guidance and the ability to test students – students would be divided into two groups; the first would attend Monday and Tuesday, and learn remotely Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; the second would learn remotely the first half of the week and attend classes in person Thursday and Friday.

Masks would be required at all times, even in hallways, but Brindley said that students would be given “mask breaks.” Students and faculty would have to pass a daily COVID-19 screening, and should someone develop symptoms during the day, they would be put in isolation and possibly sent home, along with any siblings or children also in the school.

Online classes will be more structured, Brindley said, with a full nine-period school day. However, Brindley stressed that remote learning students wouldn’t be in front of the computer the whole day, with lessons broken up into individual work, using textbooks or paper worksheets. Attendence would be taken and grading will continue.

The school is still waiting to hear on whether testing, including the SATs, Regents Exams and AP Tests, would still be offered.

“At some point, this will all be over,” he said. “And when all our kids come back into the building, we don’t want them to miss a beat academically.”