Yonkers parent sounds off on district's quarantine learning plan

Some parents in Westchester's largest school district say their students' quarantine learning plan is lousy.

News 12 Staff

Dec 16, 2021, 10:35 PM

Updated 1,033 days ago

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Some parents in Westchester's largest school district say their students' quarantine learning plan is lousy.
The growing number of positive cases in the Yonkers school district has parents worried their kids will fall further behind.
Christine Peters says her third grade daughter, Eden, had to quarantine 10 days in October when another student tested positive.
Peters is one of several parents who say it feels as if their kids are on their own when quarantining when they are supposed to be doing "asynchronous work."
"We grew up with asynchronous work, too. It was called homework, right? But we were taught the work before we had to do it. You can't possibly expect my daughter to do this without teaching her what it is she's supposed to learn," she says.
The district's quarantine learning plan is on its website - divided into two. When a whole class is quarantined, they go virtual together. When it's just a couple students, they work independently with virtual help from teachers 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
"I don't understand how in two hours you're going to sort of teach her everything she would've learned from that 7 a.m.- 2 p.m. time," says Peters.
Superintendent Edwin Quezada says just like any other parent, he's worried about kids falling behind. But he says that the district has invested a lot of money into the best tools available to keep students learning.
He recommends if parents need help to get in touch, especially with teachers.
"The classroom teacher is the glue between learning and the home," he says.
Executive Director Dawn Bartz, who in charge of digital learning, says quarantined families get a call every day with multiple options for support.
She says she thinks the combination of help from a student's regular teacher and those extra teachers makes what the district offers unique.
"I think it's an extra level of personalization that Yonkers has for our students," she says.
Quezada says there have already been 160 cases reported this month, while in previous months cases never rose above 100.
The superintendent says that unlike some nearby districts, he's not considering going virtual again because kids need to be in the classroom right now.