Long Island News Post Published on May, 4th 2020
Written by Nick P
On May 1st, NY Governor Cuomo announced that all New York Schools will remain closed for the rest of the 2020 academic school year.
This is the latest in a series of Long Island events inspired by the Coronavirus Pandemic , the original reason the schools were closed. Many people feel that we are past the peak of the Coronavirus outbreak and are itching to get back to life the way we know it, not a new normal. With the NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo's recent announcement it seems as if returning to “normal” may take longer than expected due to the repercussions from keeping all schools closed for the remainder of the academic year.
Image Courtest
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's Youtube Channel
How Does This Affect Long Island Towns?
It may not be surprising that all schools are to remain closed for the rest of the year, but that does not lessen the impact of doing so. The effect of this goes far beyond the students and teachers and will certainly affect Long Island Towns as a whole.
Many parents who have young kids will now be forced to stay at home to supervise them even if they are permitted to return to work. This is a tremendous difficulty as parents cannot simply hire a babysitter due to the perceived risk of transmitting COVID-19.
Furthermore, school staff outside of teachers and administration are now out of work until next September. This includes janitors, bus drivers, custodians, and many more people who have underappreciated jobs that make our school systems function so effectively.
Because these people will be out of work for an extended period of time, they are going to be facing economic challenges that last far beyond this school year. The ripple effect will be felt by small businesses throughout Long Island as the economy will not be flowing as it recently was.
Long Island School Graduation Ceremonies in 2020
Seniors who have long awaited their chance to attend prom have seemingly been robbed of the opportunity they have seen for so many years in movies and on television. Even though it is a shame that students will not be able to attend prom, it is even worse that many do not know if there will be a graduation ceremony to reward them for their hard work in completing a high school education.
Every Long Island School district is scrambling to find a solution on how to acknowledge their students accomplishments. Some have discussed a remote graduation ceremony featuring a slide show of students along with their favorite quote while others are discussing a possible ceremony in August.
Either way, it is important that students graduating from both college and high school know that their achievements are recognized by society, regardless of the formality of a ceremony.
Is The Long Island School Closings The Right Decision?
As the number of hospitalizations from COVID-19 remain stubborn at nearly 1,000 per day, it seems as if it was inevitable that schools would remain closed because of the number of people that are in close contact for an extended period of time. The real challenge is now in the hands of the administration of New York Schools, who have been delegated the task of coming up with a plan of how to re open in Fall 2020.
Because teachers and students have seemingly adjusted to online learning, keeping schools closed should not hinder students progress now as much as it did while in the beginning period.
Some Universities have announced that they are exploring the option to continue remote learning for the Fall 2020 semester. This will affect Universities budgets as they will not be able to make money from room and board fees in addition to tuition from students. It will also be interesting to see how it may affect students' decision of which school they will be attending and if they will elect to pay to attend a complete remote semester of college.
Will There Be Summer School In 2020?
The NYS Governor announced that a decision will be made about summer programming by the end of May. Although many people have never attended summer school and have never given i t much thought, this decision will be critical for students who need to make up credits and cannot afford to spend the next academic year doing so.
Summer school provides a way for these students to quickly catch up to state requirements in various studies to be able to graduate with their class.
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Long Island News Post Published May 4th, 2020
Written by Nick P
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