It's been three days since Albany schools made the switch to remote learning.

“Students are logging in,” Albany Superintendent Kaweeda Adams said. “They’re engaged in their lessons.”

The district, however, is dealing with hundreds of new COVID-19 cases among students and employees.

“Between Monday and Tuesday, about 144 new positive cases,” Adams said. “And also Tuesday and Wednesday, there were 143 new positive cases.”

On Wednesday, more than 250 district employees were absent.

“Eighty percent of those absences affected our instructional staff,” Adams said. “That affects the delivery of instruction."

It’s why Adams and district leaders have opted to go remote through at least next week.

“At a minimum, we were looking at about 350 class periods that we needed to cover,” Adams said.

Hundreds of COVID-19 test kits are being distributed to families across the district.

“What we’re going to do today is look at where we are,” Adams said.

Other districts have rolled out Test to Stay programs in an effort to keep students in school, but with the amount of manpower lost to the omicron surge, it's not feasible for Albany.

“One of the things we were able to do is the test-to-return after seven days," Adams said.

The district is working to expand that program and is hoping the reset will allow students and staff to safely return after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“Our primary goal is to keep our students in school and in person,” Adams said.