Jamestown Public Schools officials plan to make an announcement on April 21 how the district will deal the likely year-ending closure of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The district Board of Education meeting is pictured.

Jamestown Public Schools officials plan to make an announcement on April 21 how the district will deal the likely year-ending closure of school due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently extended his school closures statewide until April 29. While the governor has been acting in two-week increments, Dr. Bret Apthorpe, Jamestown Public Schools district superintendent, said he and his administrative team are working to come up with a way to keep children learning from home for the rest of the school year.

“Our leadership team has begun to plan what we’re going to call Checker 2, which is a process for which we’re going to plan to be out of school for the rest of the school year,” Apthorpe said. “We’re going to start a two-week planning process that will deal with many nuances related to kids not coming back to school and teachers not coming back to school until the fall.”

Apthorpe had already made the decision to close Jamestown Public Schools through April 20, which is when the district was to begin its spring vacation. Now, Apthorpe expects to announce the district’s next steps on April 21. Apthorpe said he is going to meet today with principals and teachers via a secured Zoom webinar to begin the planning process.

“Our plan is that on April 21 to announce to the Jamestown school community a very detailed plan for how we’re going to do this,” Apthorpe said. “Principals will be meeting with their staff on (April) 21 to go over the microdetails. We’re hoping for the best. We all hope that we’re back in school on the first of May. But everyone sees the same data I see and I think we should plan for the long haul because it’s the safest thing to do and hope that doesn’t come to fruition.”

Apthorpe’s comments came on the heels of several state Education Department actions that all cumulatively seem to set the stage for schools to remain closed for the rest of the year. Elementary grades English language arts and math tests were cancelled about a week ago. On Tuesday, the state Education Department announced Regents exams have been canceled this year. Students who, during the June 2020 examination period would have taken one or more Regents examinations, will be exempted from passing the assessments in order to be issued a diploma as long as they meet certain conditions.

To qualify for the exemption, students must meet one of the following eligibility requirements:

¯ the student is currently enrolled in a course of study culminating in a Regents examination and will have earned credit in such course of study by the end of the 2019-20 school year;

¯ the student is in grade 7, is enrolled in a course of study culminating in a Regents examination and will have passed such course of study by the end of the 2019-20 school year;

¯ the student is currently enrolled in a course of study culminating in a Regents examination and has failed to earn credit by the end of the school year. Such student returns for summer instruction to make up the failed course and earn the course credit and is subsequently granted diploma credit in August 2020;

¯ the student was previously enrolled in the course of study leading to an applicable Regents examination, has achieved course credit, and has not yet passed the associated Regents examination but intended to take the test in June 2020 to achieve a passing score.

The federal government has provided a one-year waiver from any Every Student Succeeds Act accountability measures while the state government has waived the requirement that schools be in session for 180 days to receive their full allotment of state aid.

“They basically were saying it would be up to local schools to determine which kids pass courses and which kids don’t,” Apthorpe said. “As you can imagine that is not as simple as that sounds. Our administrators are deep diving this guidance and putting together a plan for this.”

In addition, due to the school closures related to COVID-19, the state Education Department said it has delayed the rollout of state assessments aligned to the grades 3-8 Next Generation Learning Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics for one year, to spring 2022. Similarly, the alignment of state assessments to the New York P-12 Science Learning Standards will begin in spring 2023. Further, the state extended its current Grades 3-8 ELA and Math Testing contract by one year.