On Monday, Gowanda High School Principal Rebekah Moraites talked to students and parents about what the rest of the school year will look like, now that in-person classes have been canceled for the remainder of the school year.

GOWANDA — “It was not unexpected, but still disappointing,” said Gowanda High School Principal Rebekah Moraites of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Friday announcement that New York schools would be closed for the remainder of the academic year.

Following Friday’s announcement, both Moraites and Gowanda Elementary School Principal Carrie Ann Dzierba took to the school’s Facebook page to host their own separate “town hall” livestream events to explain to parents what the rest of the school year will look like, now that in-person classes will not resume.

How will the closure affect the district’s youngest students? Dzierba began her live presentation, which she recorded just hours after Cuomo’s announcement on Friday, by explaining that the remainder of the school year will be spent preparing students for the next grade level. This includes activities to reinforce skills already learned, along with the introduction of some new material. “Not a lot is changing based on what we’ve already been doing,” said Dzierba of Phase 1 of distance learning, which began March 16. “The only new learning is math. … There will be activities sent home to reinforce ELA, science and social studies because students already met those standards.”

This week, students received a new learning packet, which now includes pink assignment sheets that must be turned in every Monday as evidence of learning in core subjects ELA and math. “All assignments turned in as evidence of learning will be graded as complete or incomplete to track students’ progress,” Dzierba explained. “We are not going to be grading them outside of complete or incomplete…”

She noted that there are many factors that influence work submitted, including whether or not the student completed it alone or with a parent or had access to a computer or internet. “We want to be as fair as possible, knowing we’re dealing with four to 11-year-olds,” she pointed out.

Students can return the work digitally through the teacher’s already-established communication system or physically by putting it in the mail or dropping it off at the teacher’s collection box at the middle school. Work that is submitted physically must be sanitized, scanned and emailed to the teacher before it can be graded. She noted that teachers can provide more timely feedback when work is submitted digitally.

“Evidences of learning will not impact the promotion of students for next year,” Dzierba stated. “If at the end of the third quarter, students were on track to advance, they will do so. Students will end the year with the report card grades students earned at the end of the third quarter.”

During the livestream event, parents posted questions such as how school events like kindergarten graduation would proceed. “We don’t really have any information on that yet,” she replied. “Our team leaders are talking about how to find a way to supplement what we’re missing.”

Another parent asked if state-required tests will have to be made up. Dzierba said that no, tests will not be rescheduled, as they’ve been canceled altogether. No other tests will be administered this school year, as the pink evidence-of-learning sheets will be the only means of assessing whether or not the student is attempting to learn new material. Dzierba said kindergarten registration forms can be submitted through the mail or dropped off at the middle school.

On Monday, Moraites hosted a live town hall event to explain how the closure would impact credit-bearing courses, GPAs and graduation. She explained that the high school will now be moving to a two-week cycle during which teachers will be sharing new material and students will have to provide evidence of learning. Grades will be determined by a basic rubric of 3, 2, 1 or zero or valued as satisfactory or unsatisfactory. However, no numeric grades will be assigned for fourth-quarter work.

“Even though we’re keeping track and recording what students submitted, this will not be going into their final GPA,” she said. “So why continue to do the work? We’re not in school physically, but learning is still happening. Much of this (new material) will be glossed over next year because the expectation was that you were doing the work all along. This is not spring or summer break.”

She explained that students’ final grades will be determined by averaging their first, second and third-quarter grades. If the average of the these quarters results in a passing grade, the student will receive course credit.

At this point, Moraites and the junior class advisors are planning for a summer prom event at Gowanda High School. However, she said, “If a physical summer school is canceled, prom will be canceled. If group events are not allowed, prom will be canceled.”

Moraites concluded her town hall talk by discussing graduation, which she hopes will still be a live, in-person event. However, she is not holding her breath. “If we’re able to host it at Hillis Field, we will certainly do it,” she explained. “If we are allowed to gather, we would have to make sure we have a number of protocols in place to allow us to be socially distant. We would keep the same date (June 26) and would add additional rain dates because we couldn’t have it inside.”

Moraites said that now she is devoting her time to planning a virtual graduation “so we have a good plan.” She said that a virtual graduation may include pre-recorded speeches, students using Zoom to participate in their cap and gown or traditional Native American attire, or photo slideshows of students in their graduation regalia. She noted that other possibilities include a livestream or compilation video of students turning their tassels or tossing their caps. “This could culminate in a car parade to pick up diplomas,” she added. Moraites was pleased to announce that work on the yearbook has been completed and a summer pick-up date will be arranged.

“I want to thank the Gowanda Boosters for the yard signs for graduating seniors,” said Moraites. “We’re also working with a local business to get banners in downtown Gowanda for students with their name and senior photo.”