After next Wednesday, April 14, all schools in the City School District of New Rochelle will open to in-person students five days a week as the District continues to shift toward the “new normal.”
Elementary and middle school students who attend in person will do so full time; Wednesday will no longer be for asynchronous learning. New Rochelle High School will continue operating with two cohorts, the Purple and Gray, but will return to a six-day cycle, ending the “seventh day” that has been used for asynchronous learning and office hours. Each high school cohort will continue to attend school in person three days out of each cycle.
April 14 will be the final asynchronous day for grades K-8, and also happens to be the high school’s final asynchronous “seventh day.”
Ramping up to this full-time in-school schedule, on Monday, April 12, Albert Leonard Middle School will combine cohorts A and B for sixth- and eighth-graders. Those grades at ALMS were the last cohorts among the elementary and middle schools that had not yet combined to bring those students to school four days per week instead of two.
Also starting April 12, elementary schools will welcome additional students to in-person education based on surveys completed by parents last month.
COVID-19 precautions will remain in place, including the wearing of face masks and social distancing. Students who choose to learn remotely will continue to do so, but that number has been steadily declining. As of Thursday, 3,771 students remained on remote learning, a little more than a third of the District’s 10,095 students.
“We are taking major steps in arriving at our new normal,” said Interim Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero. “The more in-person education we can provide, the livelier and more productive our schools become. As the situation continues to change, we will continue to seek more in-school educating while always maintaining safe practices.”
Regularly scheduled COVID testing continues at schools throughout the District. As more students return to classes, some testing operations will be moved to school playgrounds and fields to ensure social-distancing protocols can be maintained. Of the 445 students and staff tested at Isaac E. Young Middle School, Columbus, Jefferson, Trinity and William B. Ward elementary schools and Henry Barnard Early Childhood Center since March 1, just two positive COVID-19 cases have been identified.
Dr. Marrero sent the letter linked here to parents of students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade earlier today. NRHS Interim Principal Steve Goldberg will send a similar message to families of high school students over the weekend.