Little Falls School Super Says Their Plan is Working

The Little Falls Central School District Superintendent says their plan to re-open schools is working and they're planning to add more grade levels to their hybrid model soon.

Superintendent Dr. Keith Levatino said his district was ahead of the curve when the pandemic broke out, because they had already invested in technology long before the shutdown. He said they developed their "Cohort One and Two" model based on a similar sized school in Pennsylvania.

Levatino said currently students six through 12 are learning remotely, and the Benton Hall elementary students are using the cohort model. Cohort one is physically in school on Monday and Tuesday and cohort two comes in on Thursday and Friday. "Wednesday is an important day for cleaning and a day to give teachers the opportunity to plan and hold office hours for students," he said.

Levatino said that when they built the model in July, their goal was to bring 7th graders into the hybrid model by October. "I'm proud to say, we've done that," he said. "And, we are looking forward too bringing back grades 8 and 9 the Monday after Thanksgiving break."

Levatino stressed that the plan wouldn't be working at all, had they not solved the transportation problem. "You first have to look at your bussing. Because you have to meet all CDC and all DOH guidelines" for social distancing on the busses, he added.

"We also offer one teacher per grade level, we call it a plus one, for all of those the students whose moms and dads opted for full remote learning. So we have one teacher per grade level to teach virtually at our elementary school," said Levatino.

Listen to the complete interview below.