HORSEHEADS, NY (WENY) - The Horseheads Central School District has developed both a hybrid option, and a complete remote learning option for parents, guardians, and students to choose between for the upcoming school year. 

Plans for school reopenings need to be submitted to New York state by midnight on Saturday. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will make approval decisions for the plans next week. 

Students registered for the hybrid option will be placed into two groups: Cohort A or Cohort B. Cohort A will attend in-person instruction on Mondays and Tuesdays. Cohort B will attend in-person instruction on Thursdays and Fridays. On days where students are not in the school, they will participate in remote learning. All students will participate in remote learning on Wednesdays. 

The school is also providing a 100% remote learning option, for students who are uncomfortable attending in-person instruction. 

Superintendent Dr. Tom Douglas says parents and guardians need to look out for any emails or texts from the district, because they will be sending out surveys asking what plan they will commit to, and to gauge what each student needs. He says, "Do you have technology capacity, can you help us out and transport your own students so we can socially distance on a bus? Do you have printing capacity at home? Do you have food insufficiency needs at home?"

Douglas stresses this information will not be shared with anyone outside of the district.

It is pivotal that each student is registered into either the hybrid or remote learning plan by August 7th so the district can plan for what is needed. Douglas says, "Normally it takes 4 months to get ready for the opening of the school year. We're going to do it in less than 4 weeks."

Douglas says if a student is not registered in either plan, they will be automatically registered in the 100% remote learning plan.

Douglas tells WENY the district spent 12-15 hours engaging all of the stakeholders before making this pivotal decision for the community. Horseheads Central School District released the results of a parent survey on Tuesday, which said 53% of those who responded preferred 100% in-person instruction. 

While that might be what some parents want, for a school district as large as Horseheads, it isn't possible under Cuomo's current guidelines. Superintendent Douglas says, "100% in-person for a large district would have financial problems as well as safety problems, and those safety problems are we just can't guarantee the social distancing throughout the day."

The financial toll for the district to even attempt to make 100% in-person learning work under Governor Cuomo's current guidelines would be far too high. Superintendent Douglas says, "We would have to almost double our transportation department, we'd have to double the number of classroom spaces that we have and double the amount of classroom teachers we have, and really find places so everyone can eat and be supervised. Financially it is just unacceptable. Our communities across the state would not be able to do that."

Douglas stressed these plans will need to be flexible and fluid to a certain degree. If Governor Cuomo makes an announcement that would change their current plans, the district will be flexible and adjust.