Hits: 44

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. December 2, 2020:

The White Plains City Schools will continue the combination of students attending class in their schools for part of the school week and learning remotely for another part of the week for the foreseeable future.

School unions and some parents last have asked the district to suspend in-school instruction for the 3-1/2 weeks of school in the month of December to learning remotely only (in homes) to control the spread of Covid infections during the holidays coming up.

The request is not being granted at this time.

Superintendent of Schools Joseph Ricca in a live address on the School District Facebook page , addressed the issue saying the present mix of “hybrid learning” would continue. He issued this statement to WPCNR:

The Board of Education and I remain grateful for the tremendous effort and dedication shown by all members of the WPCSD community throughout the pandemic. We are especially appreciative of the district’s Reopening Committee for the critical planning, preparation and guidance provided as we implemented our safe, smart and supported facility reopening in the fall of 2020.

We know that many in our community are understandably concerned with the recent increase of COVID-19 cases in our state and region. As a district, we remain committed to the health and safety protocols that have allowed our professionals to serve our students, in person, while addressing identified positive cases of COVID-19 and mitigating additional community spread.

We remain committed to protecting our community members and serving our children within our facilities for as long as we are able.

Should an adjustment to our in-person schedule become necessary, due to challenges associated with community spread, we are ready to act and pivot to remote learning as necessary. Still, we know that serving our students safely in our classrooms remains our daily goal.

Asked to comment on the New York State analysis of the school district rate of infections since the start of the school year in late September shown below, Dr. Ricca stated in an email to WPCNR today:

“I think that we are fortunate that we have been able to avoid pervasive spread of COVID-19 within the school facilities. We believe that this positive outcome is the direct result of the hard work of our educational community members to follow best practices throughout our school community.

We recognize that the virus is still very much a presence and we know that we will need to contend with it in the near-term.

However, we also know that adhering to best practices for health and safety goes a long way to reducing the potential spread of COVID-19 in our schools.