School Superintendent Dr. Brian Doelger told the community Friday that he predicts school will remain closed through April in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Doelger praised students, teachers, support staff and parents for their perseverance during the transition to distance learning during the school building shutdown, now in its third week.
He spoke along with other members of the Town’s COVID-19 response team at a twice weekly emergency update, which was broadcast live and is being shown on Channel 22, the public access station.
“I’m proud to say there really is a lot of learning going on through the district,” he said. “I also realize this is happening because of the hard work our teachers, students and our parents are doing.”
Doelger said he especially appreciated how the disruption had impacted parents who “are trying to do their own work at home and trying to help their kids with their learning. We realize that this have been very difficult.”
A different kind of spring break
Next week was supposed to be school holiday, but the upheaval has upended the state’s school calendar. While Shelter Island School has been engaged in distance learning for three weeks, other districts are only just getting their programs underway, Doelger said.
That means school services — including meal delivery to qualified students, day care for the children of first responders and essential workers, and distance learning — must continue statewide.
“So we are revamping our spring break into a distance learning, enrichment and family spirit week,” Doelger said.
During the week, students will be able to make up any missed work at no penalty, with teachers assigning no new work and accepting overdue assignments. With the third quarter coming to an end, students can use this time to make up any work they’ve missed in time for quarterly grading.
Students will not have daily class meetings, but instead will have opportunities to have virtual meetings with teachers during assigned office hours. Doelger thanked teachers for agreeing “100%” to add these work days to the calendar.
And, for students who are ready for additional work, teachers will be sending information about enrichment activities they can work on for extra credit. The school will be making an additional delivery of materials to students on Monday, he said.
Family spirit week
“This work does count, so we want you to get it in if you’re missing it,” he said, “and we also want you to have fun next week.”
For that purpose, the school created a family spirit week calendar of suggested activities, with opportunities for kids to send in photos that can be displayed on the school’s Facebook page. Monday, for example, will be “Pajama Day.”
That notion — coming at a time when staying at home can mean staying in your PJs all day — prompted Craig Wood, who was handling tech for the Zoom meeting to suggest instead it be called “Get Dressed Day”.
Doelger said the school will return to its regular distance learning schedule on April 13.
“As it stands now, we still are official only closed until April 15, but I can’t expect us being in before at least the end of April … just for your planning purposes.”
