ALBANY COUNTY — Because of the coronavirus, local schools had closed for a week, starting Monday, when the governor announced they would close across the state until April 1 or longer.

At the same time, the state suspended its requirement for 180 days of instruction during the school year.

“The single most effective way to slow the spread of this virus is to reduce close contacts, and that includes in our schools,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said in making the announcement. “I am directing the closure of all schools throughout the state for two weeks as we continue working aggressively to ramp up testing, isolate those who are sick, and mitigate the impacts of this virus.

“Every district will be required to submit a plan to ensure children of healthcare workers and first responders have access to child care so these closures do not strain our hospitals and that children who depend on school meal programs continue getting the support they need.”

Guilderland was the first school in Albany County to have a confirmed case of the virus. Marie Wiles, the Guilderland superintendent, notified the school community through an update Thursday, March 12, on the district’s website that “someone in a household connected to the Farnsworth Middle School” had tested positive and reported, “That household is under quarantine.”

Dances and celebrations were canceled along with the high school musical, “Chicago.”

The other confirmed case, announced the same day as that of a Guilderland woman in her 30s, was an Albany man in his 20s, a student at the University at Albany. Again by the governor’s directive, state universities across New York, including UAlbany, suspended classes, as students were to learn remotely.

By Friday, March 12, the Guilderland superintendent learned that a Farnsworth Middle School student had tested positive for COVID-19. 

“Our headstart was in many ways a challenge,” Wiles said this week. “We could not do a lot of the preparations many of our colleagues could do.”

Schools like Voorheesville were able to have staff in the building both to use equipment but also to prepare for teaching remotely.

However, all seven of the Guilderland schools — five elementary schools, a middle school, and a high school — were shut to everyone except essential staff who worked to do intensive cleaning.

“And because we got the word at four on Friday morning, many many people did not bring home teaching materials,” Wiles said.

Wiles, however, went on, “We have an amazing faculty who even on their own started working together in their buildings, departments, and grade levels.” On Monday, the district posted online resources to engage students in learning at home.

One Farnsworth Middle School student, Olivia Mair, at home with her mother, Elizabeth Floyd Mair, a former Enterprise reporter, has been reading a chapter from a Nomad Press book for middle-grade readers that the publisher made available online for free.

The chapter on the rise and spread of the bubonic plague in medieval Europe, from “Epidemics & Plagues” by Judy Dodge Cummings, seemed timely, Floyd Mair said.

Olivia’s sixth-grade teachers — Cynthia Oliver who teaches language arts and social studies and Elizabeth Mayo who teaches math and science and — have created a separate Google Classroom specifically for distance learning. They send an email every day with suggestions of things the students can do to keep themselves engaged. 

The students use an app called FlipGrid to produce short videos of themselves talking about how they have been filling their days and post them to the Google Classroom, to keep them connected to their teachers and classmates. 

“One girl talked about how the day before she had clipped her chicken’s wings and how, just when she thought her brothers couldn’t get any more annoying, she realized after spending three or four days in the house with them that they could,” Floyd Mair reports.

Oliver has been doing a live read-aloud on her YouTube channel every day at 2 p.m. Students post comments in real time, such as, when she announces the end of a session, “No, no keep reading.”  

The students have been asked to go to a math website and they are also being given original math problems to complete. For a unit on weather they had been working on, Mayo suggested that they go to the website timeanddate.com several times a day and look at the Day and Night World Map to see where it is sunny and what parts of the world have entered into nighttime.

Students are also asked to use Google My Maps to work on a map of early China, adding their own text, audio, or video notes about features such as specific rivers or mountains, explaining what those would have meant to the people who lived there.

“Our middle school and high school principals sent out lengthy emails to students and parents today,” said Wiles on Tuesday evening. The principals let people know that the buildings are still “completely closed,” Wiles said, and people cannot enter them to retrieve personal possessions like musical instruments.

The principals also let students know they could expect to hear from their teachers to “re-establish relationships to get them ready to engage via Chromebooks in learning activities.”

Each Guilderland student in fifth through 12th grades has a laptop from the school. Wiles stressed that remote learning would not replicate classroom learning.

“We’re not geared for grading assignments,” she said.

Wiles said a lot of students are worried about their grades and she wants to “quell fears.” The superintendent said, “They won’t be penalized for missed work.”

The district is still in the process of sorting out things like “seat time requirements for taking Regents,” Wiles said.

The State Education Department, she said, has been “really helpful providing flexibility.” Wiles described as “awesome” the department’s online guide.

About 21 percent of Guilderland’s 4,807 students — roughly 1,000 — are considered economically disadvantaged and generally receive free or reduced-priced meals at school.

Initially, Megan Beck, the Guilderland’s food-services director, had come up with a plan for families to drive to school to pick up “grab-and-go” breakfasts and lunches.

“We’re transitioning to delivering food to families twice a week,” Wiles said on Tuesday evening.

“It’s too hard for families to get to school for grab-and-go. Megan has been working on delivery routes,” Wiles said. Beck is also looking for volunteers who can drive those routes to deliver food. Anyone interested in volunteering may contact her at Beckm@guilderlandschools.net.

Starting March 19, families that currently get free or reduced-price meals from the district will automatically get deliveries of a three-day supply on Mondays and Thursdays. Any other student in need may request a delivery as well.

The district’s social workers, counselors, and psychologists are reaching out to the families they typically work with, said Wiles. “They’ll check in on them and maybe do some phone discussion so people know we’re here for them,” she said.

Lisa Knowles, the director of pupil personnel services for the district, has compiled resources for parents to access, said Wiles.

Knowles has provided links to help guide parents in how to talk to their children about COVID-19, what to do if a child feels anxiety, or how to deal with loneliness and isolation.

Wiles said she knows it can be difficult for working parents to make daycare arrangements for their children while school is closed. People ask her how long the schools will be closed and her answer is, “I have no idea,” she said.

She went on, “The governor’s executive order mentions child care for parents who are health-care workers or first responders. We’ve been waiting all day for guidance on that and haven’t gotten any,” Wiles said on Tuesday evening.

She noted, “School districts aren’t licensed for daycare.” And, beyond that, the Guilderland schools can’t yet be generally occupied.

“We’ve cleaned and disinfected all the buildings,” said Wiles. “They smell of bleach.”  The buildings will remain closed until March 30, two days before the April 1 reopening if the state doesn’t extend school closures, Wiles said.

“Today we came up with a plan to have even fewer people on site at the district office,” Wiles said on Tuesday evening. Wiles and one of the three assistant superintendents will be available at all time but won’t all be physically at the school.

“We’re mindful if someone becomes ill, we’ll need backup,” she said, noting that rotating also reduces the transmission of the disease.

Wiles concluded with some advice, “I encourage everyone to take all of this seriously. Social distancing is difficult but it’s critical that we honor that … for the good of all. We need to look out for each other.”

Voorheesville

On Tuesday afternoon, Voorheesville’s superintendent, Frank Macri, said he had just sat in on a group of students learning remotely, on Google Hangouts, about Korea. “It was fantastic,” he said.

Tuesday was Voorheesville’s “Day One” of remote instruction, he said. On Monday, teachers had come to school to prepare for the remote lessons while students were home.

“We’ve created packets for the grade levels,” said Macri.

“Were not a 1:1 school,” said Macri, meaning Voorheesville doesn’t give each student a laptop as Guilderland does. But Voorheesville surveyed its students — the district has about 1,160 —and found about 50 families without computer technology.

“We partnered with the Voorheesville Public Library for hotspots,” he said of devices that provide internet connection. The district has heard from one or two families a day without internet connections, he said, adding, “Our goal is to get everybody connected.”

Also, the school has reconfigured its internet in the secondary building so that it projects into the parking lot. Macri said people in the Hilltowns or elsewhere without internet access are welcome to park in the lot and use it for free. The school is located at 432 New Salem Road in Voorheesville.

When remote instruction started, Macri said, he “heard a sigh of relief” from families. “Kids want structure,” he said.

Macri himself lives in the district with children in kindergarten, second grade, sixth grade, and ninth grade. His children, as others, were eager to get to work, Macri said.

Nine to 10 percent of the district’s children, about 100, get free or reduced-price lunches, Macri said. “We contacted all those families by phone,” he said, to offer free breakfasts and lunches.

The Voorheesville Teachers’ Association and the community, he said, put together enough food baskets for two weeks. “By Monday, we had enough to feed 100 families,” he said. The bus drivers are making the deliveries.

“It’s like UPS: One stays on the bus and another leaves the basket outside the door. They ring the doorbell and keep their social distance,” Macri said, adding that the families are expecting the deliveries.

The school district’s support staff — guidance counselors, psychologists, and social workers — are setting up video conferences with the families they work with, he said.

While most of the staff is working from home, those at the school are rotating, Macri said. There’s not a lot of further cleaning to be done. “We’ve done a ton of cleaning up until this point,” he said. “The rooms are already sanitized.”

Asked about challenges, Macri said it is difficult to keep children from playing with each other. He’s heard from other school districts about kids gathering at school campuses or on playgrounds.

“You don’t want to go against CDC guidelines,” he said of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We can’t keep playgrounds clean … It’s not that snow-day mentality.”

Macri concluded by praising the supportive school board and said, “Everyone is working together.”

The superintendent at Berne-Knox-Westerlo, Timothy Mundell, did not return calls or email from The Enterprise. BKW bus drivers are delivering food — much of it donated by the community — to seniors, children, and families who need it. (See related story.)