F-M schools: Elementary to be in-person five days; HS, MS: four

FAYETTEVILLE-MANLIUS SCHOOL DISTRICT – The Fayetteville-Manlius schools are refining their plans for reopening the schools for additional in-person instruction.
On Monday night, Superintendent Craig Tice recommended to the F-M Board of Education that students at the elementary schools would receive five days per week of in-person instruction beginning on April 19. That same day, students at the middle and high school levels would return to school four days per week.
Wednesdays would remain a day for remote, asynchronous communications with teachers at the high school and middle schools, but those teachers would be expected to report to school on those days. Currently, teachers are not required to report to their school buildings on Wednesdays, but they are expected to participate in professional development programs and be available to students throughout the day.
Tice reported that the results of the survey conducted by the district indicated a preference for five days a week of in-person instruction for the elementary levels and a preference for the four-day in-person schedule for middle- and high-schoolers.
Families continue to have the option to have students learn remotely every day, but with the shift back to more in-person learning, many families that have been in the all-remote Cohort C are opting to have their children return to in-person schooling.
Tice reported that about 93 percent of families opted for in-person instruction. A little over 200 students will remain totally remote.
“The teachers will continue to work with multiple cohorts under the revised plan,” Tice said, which may require the district to hire additional staff people and teacher’s aides. “Faculty will still need time to work with the in-person and remote cohorts, either synchronously or asynchronously. The teachers really are working hard to juggle multiple cohorts.”
“I am very excited about what the potential is here to finish strong,” he said, adding that it will be a learning experience for the district that will help the district prepare for next school year.
“We’re still in the midst of a pandemic,” he said. “This is still part of a grand experiment to see if we can do it.”