BY MATT LINDSEY
North Country This Week

CANTON — The Canton Central Board of Education met last night to discuss the school’s reopening plans as officials tackle how to safely education students on what is expected to be a reduced budget.

Parents have been surveyed once as to their plans on sending their child back to school for in-person instruction, or to keep them at home for remote learning, or a third option which is a hybrid learning experience. A final survey will be sent to parents by early next week.

“It is our understanding that families do have the right to choose remote learning,” CCS Superintendent Ron Burke said.

In all circumstances, the school will offer technology needed, including laptops and Chromebooks to students so they can learn from home.

He said that so far about 10-15% of parents have opted for their child to learn remotely. This leaves school officials with the task of taking temperatures of about 1000 students and staff members each day.

Daily health screening both at home and once they get in school. Any temperature above 100 Fahrenheit will require that student, staff member or visitor to leave school grounds or stay home.

“That’s a lot of temperatures to screen as they walk through. How we do it, what people we use … all of those things are still question marks,” Burke said.

The superintendent noted that some other administrators have mentioned doing “spot checks” which would be random temperature checks of individuals.

He said that plan may be the direction the district takes, if testing everyone becomes an impossible task.

Burke said plans call for classroom sizes to be cut in half through using “all hands on deck” and space available.

All kindergarten programs would become daily half-day instruction, versus a traditional full-day schedule. Pre-k would continue to be half days.

He said he could “not think of anything worse” than an alternating schedule for elementary students.

“Those kiddos need to be here every day, they need to be getting instruction every day,” he said. “They are just simply not independent learners.”

He acknowledged that by cutting kindergarten to half days that teachers would be unable to offer a complete curriculum, but said they would hit on the important information.

Four Days In-school, One Day Remote

Burke said up until last week, he was “married” to the idea of having in-person schooling five days per week. When not all of his colleagues supported this idea, he started having second thoughts.

Canton Central is now heavily considering a schedule that would see four days in school instruction and one day of remote learning.

The biggest negative issue, according to Burke, would be placing the burden of childcare onto parents for the day of remote learning.

However, he believes the pros outweigh the cons.

Having a day of remote learning would allow for the schools to be able to transition into full-time remote learning if schools are shut down due to a regional COVID-19 outbreak.

This model would allow students to learn remotely for a day and stay in the loop as to how to navigate needed programs, troubleshoot for issues and know expectations and schedules in a remote setting.

Burke said the best advice he has heard about teaching for the 2020-21 school year is to “flip the classroom.”

Teach students remotely, even the children in the classroom. A lot of time is spent placing curriculum online, and this is one way to save time and keep everyone on the same page.

The plan also called for the “online only” day to be a Wednesday, not a Friday.

School board member Eileen Raymond stressed the importance of families working with schools to smooth the transition of wearing a mask in school.

“If we’re going to be successful, we all have to pull our weight on this,” Burke said.

Burke said the main thing school officials learned about remote learning this past spring, was attendance and accountability.

There will be guidelines each teacher must follow, with some leeway allowed to individualize each classroom.

Special needs and BOCES students would attend class five days a week. Several buses would be needed to maintain CDC safety guidelines.

“We need to be prepared that there are measures we are going to be taking for health and safety that are going to be costly. Those are the rules we are going to have to play by,” Burke said.

Financial Concerns

Board member Andrew Moses asked about the increased costs of transportation, thermometers, masks etc., paired with a rumored 20% cut in school aid – how is the school sitting?

“That’s an honest question and deserves an honest answer,” Burke replied. “We’re in trouble.” There’s no way to put it other than we are in deep trouble.

A 20% decrease in overall state aid for CCS would mean losing between $2.5 and $4 million.

‘We’re not going to get to $4 million by cutting paper supplies,” he said.

Local superintendents are still not clear if the 20% cut is in overall aid, of just foundation aid.

Burke said that during budget planning, officials already addressed cuts. Burke described those as “hard cuts to make.”

Those decisions were made prior to the knowledge that schools will need to spend more on transportation and safety-related supplies related to COVID-19.

Burke said some savings are expected to be realized through things the school cannot do, such as fall sports. Burke does not believe there will be fall sports and that would save the school some money.

“Again, that’s not the answer I want to be giving any student. Saying I hope that your season is canceled so I can afford an extra bus run.”

A decision on fall sports is expected by Sept. 21.

Student Transportation

For busing, the capacity will be limited to about one-third capacity. Students of the same family will be seated together. Students will be seated from the back, moving forward, in assigned seats. Masks will be required on buses.

“The question has come up … how in the world are we going to mandate that?,” Burke said, shrugging his shoulders.

“This is a different time,” he said. “We are talking about the health and safety of not just the individuals but the entire school community. Those rules are going to be enforced. Riding a bus is still a privilege.”

“We are on the very steep cliff of falling off and going into full closure mode,” Burke said.

Parents are encouraged to provide masks for their children, but CCS has ordered thousands of masks for those who do not have one, or who forget one. They will have cloth and surgical-type mask options.

Feeding Students

Schools will continue to provide food to all students. Safety plans are being made to limit the number of students eating together at one time. At the elementary level, students will eat in the classroom.

Details are still being worked out as to how the district will get food to students.

Burke said there are many options and the school is making it a priority to finalize details.

He said the school is reverting back to the qualifications for free or reduced programs where families would need to apply for those discounts. But, Burke did not seem to back that.

“It would make our lives much easier if we were free and reduced for all,” he said.