The Vestal Central School District anticipates being able to move to 4 days/week of in-person instruction at Vestal High School beginning Thursday, April 29, 2021.
The updated Interim Guidance for Instruction at Pre-K through Grade 12 schools from the NYS Department of Health recommends that high school classrooms maintain physical distancing of at least six feet between students for counties with high risk for transmission, and both Broome and Tioga are high-risk counties. However, the guidance mentions that a decision to reduce physical distancing to less than six feet may be made with community input.
How does this differ from Vestal elementary schools and the Vestal Middle School being able to return to more in-person days of instruction per week? Due to the ability to keep their students in cohorts, or groups of the same students who remain in their classrooms throughout the school day, attend specials together and go to lunch and recess together, these schools were able to move forward with more in-person days sooner.
At the high school, it is not feasible to have cohort groups of students, as high school students’ class schedules are much more specialized. Therefore, it was necessary to meet the risk tolerance requirement outlined under the NYS Department of Health’s updated interim guidelines.
Jeffrey Ahearn, Superintendent