To say the 2020 and 2021 school years have been uniquely challenging is probably putting it lightly.

When spread at least six feet apart, there’s only room for about half of the students in each classroom at Glens Falls Middle School, so they alternate between in-person and at-home learning every other day.

“Overall, everybody has been fantastic, the kids, faculty, staff, parents,” Superintendent Paul Jenkins said. “Everybody is dealing with all of the challenges and doing, obviously, the best they can.”

Jenkins says about 80 percent of middle and high school students are on a hybrid model. Despite how well they’ve acclimated, he says it’s hard to ensure every child is getting the most out of their education when learning remotely.

“We know the most effective model for teaching is to have the students with the teacher in the classroom,” Jenkins said. “Those personal connections, teachers not being able to read a student and tell by their body language and their reactions whether or not they’re understanding a concept, those are things you can’t get over a computer,” said John Goralski, superintendent of the Warrensburg Central School District.

Goralski believes the time has come to welcome more students back to classrooms. That’s why he, Jenkins, and about 30 of their fellow superintendents in the region signed a letter to New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, urging the state to relax social distancing guidelines within schools from six to three feet.

“We’re doing the best we can,” Goralski said Friday afternoon. “It’s not good enough. We need our students back in school, but we’re doing the best we can.”

On Friday morning, the day after the letter was sent out, the CDC altered its guidance on school social distancing, stating that three feet is just as effective as six, as long as face coverings are worn.

“We anticipated it,” Goralski said. “We’ve been doing our own research, and we were confident we could keep our students safe at three feet. Now that the CDC has confirmed that, we just hope New York state follows suit.”

As they await a potential change in standards from the state, both Jenkins and Goralski say they’re confident students can be welcomed back into the classroom and kept safe.

“We have about a quarter left in the school year, and we’ve had students who have been struggling,” Goralski said. “We do believe if we can get them back now, we can get them on track.”

“Right now, we probably have 80 percent of our faculty and staff immunized,” Jenkins said. “Getting our students back in, even if there are more students in the classroom, I think we’re positioned to make it happen and make it happen safely.”