New Rochelle Schools Planning For More In-Person Classroom Time

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — On Friday, March 19, families of New Rochelle students in high school and middle school will be told about the district's plans for a return to greater in-person instruction. Administrators say they are still hammering out the final details of how exactly more students will spend more time in real classrooms.

The school system only recently returned to a hybrid virtual/in-person learning model in January after briefly being forced to shift to a primarily virtual instruction schedule. The precaution became necessary after parts of New Rochelle were declared a "yellow zone" by the state following a troubling spike in COVID-19 cases. In February, learning cohorts, or pods, were combined to give elementary students more in-person classroom time. A similar plan is expected to be implemented for middle school and high school pupils in the district.

“Since COVID-19 arrived in New Rochelle, District administrators, educators and staff have devoted themselves wholly to facing the challenges brought by the virus in the service of our more than 10,000 students,” school district officials said in a February letter to parents and guardians. “This year, now that the transition to a hybrid model has been completed, we will provide students as much in-person education as can be done safely and responsibly, while remaining prepared to shift to an all-remote model when the situation calls for it.”

Interim Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero and other top school officials held a series of four virtual town hall meetings last month to get feedback on plans to increase in-person learning for as many students as possible as soon as possible. In all, more than 400 parents, students and educators participated in these forums.