FAIRPORT, N.Y. — School buses in Fairport have been carrying students to school a couple days a week since the school year started; part of the district's hybrid online, in-person approach to education in the pandemic.

But when New York State late Friday approved the return of high risk sports, the Fairport school board president was like many local education leaders — caught off guard by a decision that seemed to fly in the face of health and safety standards most districts upheld.

What You Need To Know

  • Fairport's School Board wrote Monroe County health and government leaders for clarification on metrics required to reopen in-person full-time learning in its classrooms

  • New York State's green lighting of high risk high school sports last Friday triggered the letter from FCSD

  • Open Schools Monroe County, calling distance learning part of a national emergency, wants students to return classrooms now

"We were perplexed as how that was able to occur," Tim Slisz said. "We want our student athletes to have that opportunity, but we want all of our students to have every opportunity that's possible."

So Slisz penned a letter to Monroe County Executive Adam Bello and County Health Director Dr. Michael Mendoza seeking metrics for what it would take to safely reopen classrooms to full-time, in-person learning.

It’s the district saying we want to understand where we are and that we're always following the guidance," said Fairport Superintendent of Schools Brett Provenzano.

As Monroe County prepares to respond to districts like Fairport that want to move beyond hybrid models of schooling, Open Schools Monroe County,  a citizens group led by Dr. Nicole Sidhu, Ph.D., is leading a campaign against inconsistent information from local health officials on what it takes to fully reopen classrooms.

Dr. Sidhu points to the use of barriers in classrooms. They have widely been dismissed as an option because of inconsistent measures of effectiveness by districts that have tried them.

Local school leaders have been advised not to consider them. Yet Open Schools Monroe County points to other parts of the world where they are effective. The group reports while school leaders have been "told not to use them," a letter from the Monroe County Health Department does not formally advise against their use. 

"We’ve been consistently told 'because we've been advised against it," Sidhu said. "Finally, one of our members checked in with the health department. Where is their written guidance against barriers?"

This group, like a growing number across the region, wonders why their school classrooms are not filled with students each day as schools and districts in other parts of the world do.

"This is a national emergency," Sidhu said. "That children are locked out of the school and it needs to stop."

"There are a lot of moving parts to a decision like this," Slisz said. "We can't just turn on a dime. But we want to be ready to do it, and we want to know what it will take to make it happen."

As Fairport school leaders wait for updated guidance from the county, district leaders said there was no drop-dead date for when a return to full, in-person learning could happen this school year.