#Top NYC school wants full-time remote learning next year

Enlarge Image

New Explorations in Science and Technology school in Manhattan.
William Farrington

One of the city’s top schools is pursuing full remote learning for the upcoming school year, The Post has learned.

Manhattan’s New Explorations in Science and Technology has issued a reopening model where all instruction would take place off campus with only advisory and secondary services taking place in its building.

In a presentation to parents this week, the Department of Education-run, K-12 school on the Lower East Side  cited space and social distancing constraints in proposing the plan.

“The centrally designed models assume a capacity of 33 or 50%; our capacity is 20-30%,” officials wrote. “Because our capacity prevents us from using a central model, we are designing our own.”

Instead of splitting up students, NEST wants to dispense with on-site instruction altogether.

“All instruction will be remote and synchronous – live, interactive, online teaching on a consistent, daily schedule,” reads a school planning document provided to The Post.

While parental opinion varies, backers argue that uniform distance learning is preferable to the potential chaos of alternating in-house and remote instruction.

“We believe in this model- that is right for our community, and that it provides us with much of what we missed when we left our building in the spring,” school officials said.

They stressed that the option would feature robust live instruction that would correspond to a traditional daily school schedule.

While many teachers provided some synchronous instruction before the system’s March closure, countless parents complained of little to no live contact with their instructors.

In addition to easing logistical aggravations, NEST administrators argued that the approach would keep also classes intact and allow kids to learn in familiar unison.

“There is no easy answer here,” said a NEST parent. “But there is the growing sense that if schools can’t open full-time – which plenty of parents support – then it should just be one or the other. And it’s not just at this school.”

But the staggered structure also presents complications for working parents who would be forced to find and fund childcare for their kids when they’re not in class.

The Department of Education did not immediately comment on the ability of individual schools to opt for full remote learning formats.

“This opens a big can of worms,” said a DOE source. “If you let one school do it then you have to let them all do it. Who gets to decide? Do parents hold a vote? It’s just one more headache.”

The DOE has already decreed that individual families can select full remote learning for the upcoming year in light of ongoing coronavirus concerns.

City Hall has embraced the staggered schedule approach to enable social distancing in often overcrowded city school buildings while slowly reviving on-site routines.