Ithaca High School (IHS) senior, Kianna Eddy was looking forward to her senior year ever since she first walked into the building as a freshman. As a result of COVID-19 however, her senior year experience was limited. 

 

 “This is not how I envisioned my senior year to be,” she said. “Not getting the same kind of communication like I did in past years has been kind of hard to adjust to.”

 

All year, high schools across the country have been participating in “hybrid” learning, a combination of face-to-face and virtual learning, due to COVID-19. While students have just started to get used to the combination, high schools have been planning to phase out of hybrid learning for the remainder of this school year and the 2021-2022 school year.

 

Even teachers are finding it hard to adjust to online learning. Samuel Innes, a teacher in the English department, said that he spends four to five hours teaching online every day.

 

“I feel physically exhausted,” Innes said. “The last thing I want to do when I get home is look at my screen again and grade papers.” 

 

According to an Education Week Research Center survey, approximately 69% of schools in the U.S. have been conducting “hybrid” classes for the 2020-2021 school year. 

 

Some schools are even starting to bring all students in full time as April rolls around. Ithaca High School is not one of those schools.

 

The superintendent and the principal did not return repeated calls requesting comment. However, in a letter to the district addressed on March 29, superintendent Brown said that although there is a plan to phase the elementary students back into in-person classes, it’s more difficult to bring back middle school and high school students because of staffing challenges.

 

“We anticipate more in-person options at the secondary level as more educators become fully vaccinated and return to in-person instruction,” Brown stated. “We will provide updates and information about secondary shifts when the staffing situation improves.”

 

Regarding COVID-19 restrictions and procedures Innes said that not much has changed throughout this year. However, New York State has currently changed the six-feet distance rule and will now allow students to sit three-feet apart, granted that there is a plastic barrier on each desk.

 

According to the assistant to the superintendent, Emilee Tracy-Arm, plans for the 2021-2022 academic school year are still up in the air for IHS and the entire Ithaca City School District.

 

As for next year’s school budget, that is also still up in the air. According to the Ithaca High School website, the Board of Education is still developing next year’s budget, and a final vote will be held on May 18. 

 

Teachers such as Innes hope that reopening plans will be decided before the summer so they can start preparing for next year. 

 

“Last summer was very difficult because as a teacher you try to plan your course out and not knowing what the school year was going to look like threw us off,” he said. 

 

Although Innes’ ideal scenario for next year would be to have everyone back at school, he said it is likely that the school will allow for students to remain remote if they choose to. For now, the students and faculty have to wait for further details to be released by the superintendent.

 

“I just hope that next year we see the magic of the classroom return,” Innes said. “A lot of that magic has been lost through a digital screen, and that magic is what has been motivating me to teach for fourteen years.”