SALAMANCA — With one month of reopening amid coronavirus under their belts, teachers and staff in the Salamanca City Central School District continue to adapt to a brave new world of education.
Principals from Salamanca’s three schools updated the Board of Education at its Tuesday meeting on how the hybrid and e-learning models have worked so far as the potential for more students coming into the buildings grows.
High School Principal Chris Siebert said the attendance and participation through e-learning has been mostly good except for a handful of students who repeatedly don’t check-in. He said a new daily COVID screening survey was recently implemented to count as attendance.
“Just this week we opened the library as another (e-learning) hub. This is serving as a hub for our juniors and seniors,” he said. “We are also in the process of getting office tables and chairs for our e-learning hub in the gym. These changes will make both locations more suitable and comfortable for learning and engagement.”
Siebert said a Native American tutoring room is open for students for individual and group help. Each grade level is monitoring the engagement of students with various teams of staff, he said, and some staff have done home visits or reached out to students who are struggling.
“It’s obviously a difficult time in the world and in education it’s not ideal, but I feel like each day we are progressing and making strides to improve our teaching and learning,” he added.
Seneca Intermediate Principal Nicole Beaver said about 230 students are in school now on the hybrid schedule. She said all the teachers and staff have been working hard to make sure every student’s needs are met.
“It seems like we’re learning and adapting daily,” she said. “Having students in-person and remote adds a whole new level of teaching and I must say how proud I am of how the Seneca teachers are doing.”
Beaver said the school has been focusing on the social and emotional health of students since school resumed, using several avenues to make sure students’ needs are met and let them know the school staff believes in them and are there for them.
“Overall, Seneca is at a really good place right now,” she added. “Everything is becoming a little more comfortable for everyone.”
Prospect Elementary Principal Gayle Pavone said their hybrid model sees about 55 percent of students coming into school. She said they’ve been trying to meet family’s schedules for e-learning and a “power hour” in the evening for ELA and math help.
“Students are really following a great routine when they come into the building,” she said. “We’ve made sure that we are doing recess on a daily basis, and teachers are doing a great job of getting kids outdoors when possible, just to get that extra stretch break.”
Pavone said all the staff at Prospect are working as a team to support all students and make sure all families are engaged. She said changes between hybrid and e-learning for students continue as more kids begin coming to the building and the schedules are working.
“It’s great to see the kids in person, but it’s also great to see all the kids via Zoom,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed popping in to see how engaged the kids are, whether in the classroom or on Zoom.”
Dr. Mark Beehler, Deputy Superintendent, said the district’s future plans include Prospect and Seneca evaluating an option for students to come to campus for four days a week instead of two. But in order to do that, he said parents and students need to commit to sticking with either an e-learning or hybrid model.
“We’re approaching maximum capacity,” he said. “That way we can plan and fill in all the available spots so that we can reach our maximum capacity on site.”
In the high school, there have been some requests to bring in more students for greater teacher contact, Beehler said, something they expect to happen over the next couple of weeks.
Beehler said a team monitors the current COVID-19 data in the region on a daily basis, sometimes several times a day. He said there is a plan ready to move all students to 100-percent e-learning.
“We need to be prepared to make those changes on a day-by-day basis,” he explained. “We’ve been seeing a lot of things happening on the east end of the county, particularly in and around Olean.”
Beehler said if the county and state departments of health recommend closing out of precaution or if there is a confirmed case, the switch could happen in less than 24 hours and students and staff need to be ready.
“There’s an awful lot of work that occurs behind the scene to ensure our students are safe,” he added. “We will keep our schools open only if we determine it is safe to do so.”
(Contact managing editor Kellen Quigley at kquigleysp@gmail.com)
