Reopening Plan: School Schedules - Niskayuna Central School District

In-Person/Hybrid Instructional School Schedule

In-person instruction will include regular, substantive interactions between students and teachers, opportunities for instruction that are accessible to all students and regularly scheduled times for students to interact with and receive feedback and support from teachers.

Current staffing levels will be insufficient to accommodate the expanded number of classrooms needed to ensure social distancing.

Special Note: The generic term “livestreaming” is used in many places below. This is shorthand for what will actually be a two-way, interactive approach for students who are not in the room with teachers and peers to join a class meeting and be part of the group remotely via Google Meets.

In grades K-6, direct instruction will be provided to students everyday by their classroom teacher. The method of direct instructional delivery will rotate every other day because students are spaced out over two classrooms.

Example:

Monday – Direct instruction will be provided by the classroom teacher to half of a class in-person and livestreamed to the other half of the class in another location in school supervised by another faculty or staff member.

Tuesday- Direct instruction will be provided by the classroom teacher in-person to the half of the class that was not with the teacher in person on Monday and livestreamed to the other half of the class in another location in school supervised by another faculty or staff member.

Direct, in-person instruction and livestream instruction will continue for the two groups in this alternating day format.

The instructional program in grades 7-12 will be provided in-person to approximately 50 percent of students on a rotating basis alphabetically.

During the days that students in grades 7-12 are not receiving in-person instruction, they will be participating in class remotely via Google Meets.

In-person instruction will occur as follows (times are subject to change, based on transportation):

K-4 Monday through Friday (7:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m.)

Grade 5 Monday through Friday (9:45 a.m. – 3:05 p.m.)
Grade 6 Monday through Friday (9:45 a.m. – 3:05 p.m.)

Grades 7 and 8 (9:45 a.m. – 3:05 p.m.)

50% of students A1/B1 Days (every other day)
50% of students A2/B2 Days (opposite every other day)

Grades 9-12 (8:30 a.m. – 2:15 p.m.)

50% of students A1/B1 Days (every other day)
50% of students A2/B2 Days (opposite every other day)

Important note: We are outfitting all grade 7-12 classrooms for livestreaming. This will enable students to attend live class sessions each day (at school one day and remote the next, etc.), meaning that instruction will advance daily.
The following tables provide visual depictions of the in-person/hybrid schedules.

In-Person/Hybrid Model K-6

Screenshot of the K-6 schedule

In-Person/Hybrid Schedule: Grades 7-12 (Sample Week)

Our schools will minimize the movement of students. This potentially means having students eat lunch in their classroom instead of the cafeteria and eliminating assemblies, field trips and other large-group activities. Special-area subjects (e.g., art, music, physical education) may be pushed into the classroom in grades K-8. Whenever possible, students will utilize outside space for physical education instruction.

To the extent possible, students will remain in small cohorts if/when leaving the classroom, such as for recess or any necessary transition. This will be done to reduce their exposure to additional students.

Remote Instruction

Given the possibility that communities may experience spikes in COVID-19 cases at any point during the school year, which may prompt short or long-term school closures, we will implement the schedules outlined below for fully remote instruction.

In a remote instructional model, synchronous direct instruction will be provided in core content areas as well as specials and electives. As above, all instruction will continue to be aligned to the New York State Learning Standards.

In grades K-5, schedules will be adjusted to balance live, direct instruction from classroom teachers via screen time and independent work time. Therefore, time allotments for K-5 virtual direct instruction are shorter than we would use for in-person direct instruction.

Student schedules in grades 6-12 will reflect modified master schedules, so that students do not encounter conflicts wherein synchronous lessons for different subjects are offered simultaneously. Remote instruction will occur as follows:

K-5 Monday through Friday

Direct instruction online with teachers (8:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.)
Student independent work, teacher office hours and extra help daily (1:00 p.m.-2:45 p.m.)

Grades 6-8 Monday through Friday

Direct instruction online with teachers based on student schedules (9:00 a.m.-3:15 p.m.)
Students can receive extra help and work with teachers individually and in small groups as they do when learning is in-person, by identifying times that they are available for this.

Grades 9-12 Monday through Friday