New Rochelle school district announces that classes will be fully remote for at least September
NEW YORK - New Rochelle was one of the first communities in the nation to go on lockdown, long before the coronavirus swept across the rest of the nation.
But now, 5 months later, with a new school year just weeks away, parents and students have been told that they won’t be returning to classes in-person, at least for the month of September.
The decision came Thursday in an email to parents with New Rochelle School Superintendent Laura Fejoo saying that all 10,000-plus students will begin the new school year remotely for the first month at least.
The news drew angry opposition from some parents on a Zoom call with Fejoo on Thursday.
“Kids will slam those chrome books shut because they don’t want to learn remotely,” one parent said. “There’s no way to teach them properly. It’s a complete abdication of your responsibility as educators.”
One of the biggest concerns raised was childcare for children in lower grade levels.
“Why wasn’t K-3 prioritized to return to school when our rate is so low?” another parent asked.
However, when FOX 5 NY asked Dr. Fejoo the same question, her answer was not favoring one student over another.
“There’s no great decision, but we wanted to make sure every student had a partial in-person experience when we looked at the hybrid model,” Dr. Fejoo said.
Dr. Fejoo also admits that the decision was a tough call, but wanted to keep students, parents and teachers safe.
New Rochelle is only the second school district in the Hudson Valley to announce that they are starting the school year all-virtua, but Dr. Fejoo says she is hoping to bring students back into school buildings as early as October.