Archive: Around Town

The school buildings have been closed for weeks due to COVID-19, but the Lansing schools are far from closed.  Teachers and students alike have had to adapt to the shift from classroom learning to education over the Internet.  When the schools were first closed the focus was on reviewing materials covered up until that time.  But at the April 13th Board of Education meeting Lansing School Superintendent Chris Pettograsso reported that the New York State Education Department (NYSED) now requires that new material be delivered to students.

"So it's become a much more critical for students to engage, whereas we were doing a lot of review," she said. "We're really just getting used to life as we know it, social distancing and isolation and we're very compassionate and empathetic with families in which we'll try to support in any way we can. But the expectation is now that students are engaged online and doing some things and if there is not a capability to do the remote learning digitally, we will make sure we provide it on paper and other formats for students to be able to access the material."

Lansing High School Principal Patrick Hornbrook said his staff had to scramble to make sure that all students would have online access to school from home when it was announced school would remain closed.

"We spent the first full week and a half getting devices to students that needed them," he said. "And there are still a few kids, very few really -- I think probably six or seven -- that don't have access in a reliable manner. And they're getting paper copies of work delivered and other accommodations weekly, and sometimes daily, depending on what teachers are doing."

But students having the equipment to receive instruction is only part of the challange the District faces.  Pettograsso said that bandwidth needed to serve instruction is limited, so teachers and administrators are looking at practical ways to provide the classwork.

"It's really gotten to be about data, how much data people have available -- how many people can be on and using the wifi at one time," she explained. "So we're trying to look at how we deliver our instruction and, we'll talk a little bit more about this to change it so not everybody's doing the same thing at 10 o'clock in the morning. We'll be talking about synchronous and asynchronous instruction. Maybe we'll be providing more videos of instruction of the new material so it can be watched at any point in a day. And then learning can happen."

Elementary School teachers are using Google Meets to connect with their students using the Seesaw and Flipgrid platforms, as well as readings in live videos on Facebook.  In the Middle School teachers are using the Google Classroom platform to hold classes.  Teachers there also had to make sure students could receive the instruction from home, and are providing paper copies of school work for students who don't have reliable Internet access.

"There's basically been a large shift going to teaching virtually or remotely and the teachers have really been rising to the challenge," said Middle School Principal Christine Rebera. "We also pretty much have that as our platform and most teachers if they hadn't already done that, have at this point learned how to establish that and are giving students assignments and postings and videos and all of that is happening definitely at the seventh and eighth grade level and now it's happening a little more at the fifth and sixth grade level as we're shifting a little more to new instruction for fifth and sixth grade where it's been primarily review up until this point. So they're looking to make their lessons as relevant and succinct as possible so that, uh, an accessible to as many students as possible."

The district is continuing with food service delivery as well as delivering classroom materials.  In order to conserve on resources and to limit the amount of time food and transportation staff have to be on campus, the District is consolidating deliveries to one day per week on Mondays.

"We have about 200 families that we're feeding on a daily basis, breakfast and lunch," Pettograsso said.  "We can create safer environments for them as essential workers  We're limiting the amount of time that our food service and transportation are actually on staff. We're also be delivering materials to students in the same manner on Mondays, and possibly Tuesdays if necessary. So everything will be pretty streamlined from this point out."

Administrative offices have also largely converted to online virtual communication.  Pettograsso says her staff meets every morning to discuss budget and personnel matters, and to review daily changes mandated by Governor Cuomo.

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