Since September, school leaders across New York state have tried to balance students’ health and safety against their academics. So far, schools are seeing some students struggle to adapt to hybrid learning.

Going to school amid a global pandemic, for area school leaders, has been akin to a balancing act.

“There’s this tug of war between health and safety protocols and instruction and learning,” Kevin Whitaker, Jamestown Public Schools superintendent, said.

So far, those protocols have kept students and staff members safe, as evidenced by the low infection rates reported by schools across Chautauqua and western Cattaraugus counties.

But, the academic slide — due mostly in part to a 2019-20 school year cut short and a 2020-21 school year with more accountability — is undeniable, according to superintendents like Whitaker.

“The best way to have kids learn is to have them in school,” Whitaker said. “We just are desperately trying to make that happen and right now, the logistics and COVID have us in a wrestling hold. We’re trying to get ahold of it.”

“We’re learning as we go. … It’s all new,” said Michael Ginestre, superintendent at Sherman Central School. “The balance between in-person and remote is all new for us. We’re evaluating the data on a daily basis and we recognize that there are issues.”

Ginestre and K-12 principal Ann Morrison discussed this with school board members at their meeting two weeks ago after finding that 51% of ninth graders are failing one or more subjects.

“There was one grade here that is struggling,” Ginestre said, noting that those students who are struggling will be getting help in the school building. “Interventions are in place to try and increase the amount of in-person instruction for those struggling students. We brought them back last week and we’re working with them on an in-person basis to give them the intervention they need.”

While Michael Mansfield, superintendent at Dunkirk City School District, won’t have hard data points until the middle of this month, he said that principals at his district’s six buildings are reporting similar trends.

“The principals are reporting concerns with connecting with especially our middle and high school students,” he said. “There are concerns similar to what other districts are reporting in getting our kids on track.”

He did say, however, that “students we have in the elementary school that are in-person are showing rapid gains.”

“That doesn’t mean that our remote students aren’t,” he said. “At the very least it just means that the students that are coming in person are actually making some ground.”

Maureen Donahue, superintendent at Southwestern Central School, said she has also received some positive feedback regarding her district’s hybrid format.

“I ran into a parent in town the other day who said, ‘My child is having the best year ever because it was in a small group,'” she said. “I’m not going to tell you that everything is going exactly the way we want it to go. It is not a perfect plan. I tell them that all the time, but there are a lot of positives coming out of this.”

She, however, just doesn’t want students becoming complacent.

“I think you’re going to have some gaps because you’re not seeing the same intensity of what you’re used to seeing,” she said. “I think we’ve shifted a little bit to see if kids are okay and healthy. And that’s fine — we just can’t shift so much. You don’t want a doctor missing out on a whole semester of surgery, any more that we want to kids into a world of work or off to college with gaps in their learning.”

A lot of this, Whitaker believes, is due to a longer-than-normal “summer slide” that began when students were relegated to learning online once the coronavirus began to spread.

“Everyone’s aware of the summer skills slide, especially in younger kids. … There’s always a little bit of a hiccup,” he said. “We didn’t have just a 10-week summer slide. We had some form of this remote learning that we had to do in March. It’s really been 30 weeks of a slide. But, with a March to September slide, it’s just a significant issue.”

He added, “Let’s pretend that COVID disappeared and all we were dealing with was just this long skills slide: it would be just a challenging year with that slide. It’s just the time away from regular face-to-face instruction. It would take us a pretty impressive year to get us back on track. Add COVID into the mix that prevents us from bringing kids back like we want to and it compounds the problem.”

Most likely recognizing this trend, the state announced on Nov. 5 that January 2021 Regents exams would be canceled.

“I think they needed to take the Regents off the table because we need to make sure our kids are accountable to the curriculum and that establishes trust in our teachers to do that,” Donahue said. “I know we’ve had teachers say that it’s a relief that they can concentrate on some things that we need to do. I hate to say that we teach to the test, but it does take a level of stress away though.”

“It’s probably better for the kids, especially the ones who may be remote,” Ginestre said. “These situations are impossible for our students to navigate. It eases a burden on our students for sure. I know our teachers will still teach the standards how they’re supposed to be taught. I know they will do everything we can to make sure students achieve those standards.”

Donahue said that some students have requested remote learning “for very good reasons.”

“We had someone taking the SAT and they didn’t want to end up in a quarantine situation after they prepared and paid to take the SAT which they need for college,” she said. “We worked with that family and we’re doing it on an individual basis on the principal’s level, working with the families to try and accommodate. We’ve had a couple other requests where we can pivot a kid to remote for a week.”

She added, “Our goal is still to have them in here every other day. It’s tough.”