'Social distancing is social stunting'

[jmyrlefuller]

https://www.oleantimesherald.com/news/wellsville-school-superintendent-social-distancing-is-social-stunting/article_4a59df35-3d59-574f-8878-d31dc9e2499b.html

by Kathryn Ross
February 4, 2021

What does President Joe Biden’s quest to get kids back in school mean for a school district like Wellsville?

“I want the same thing,” said the district’s superintendent, David Foster. “I want kids back in school, but there is one sticking point — social distancing.”

He also feels that the students are falling behind when it comes to state guidelines for academic milestones.

“In this system we don’t see the kids often enough and not enough is being taught,” he said. “We’re always looking for better ways of bringing the students back.”

While having school all year and eliminating the summer break might sound like a viable solution, Foster said it isn’t.

“You have to remember that for everything you ask for, you’re going to have to pay for it,” he said, adding that because of the pandemic state revenues are down and it looks like there will be less state aid for schools this year than in the past.

Using vacant buildings around the village has also been suggested, but that is limited by bus transportation and the time lag that would result from busing students to different sites for classes.

With current findings from the CDC that schools are not the super-spreaders of the coronavirus that they were first thought to be, Foster said that if the federal and state governments would relax social distancing requirements by just 3 feet it would be a big help in getting more students into the classroom on a more regular basis.

(excerpt)