Some Rochester-Area Schools Welcome Back Students to the Classroom

Some school districts in Monroe County started their in-person classes Tuesday. The Rush-Henrietta school district was one of them.

On Tuesday, half of the students are starting in-person classes, while the other half will start on Thursday while the first group does online classes. Students will be on a Monday-Tuesday and then Thursday-Friday schedule, switching between in-person and online learning. Wednesday is reserved for cleaning the schools.

Sharon Desantis and her family said goodbye to her two grandchildren Tuesday morning. One is a kindergartener starting her very first day of school, and she got on the bus with her older brother, a third-grader.

Neither Desantis nor her grandson Blake are worried about the school year. Desantis says her son works as a custodian for Sherman Elementary School in the district and she knows it safe.

“Those guys have been working super, super hard to clean the schools all summer long and before that. So I feel super safe. The school district is doing a wonderful job. I don’t have any concerns,” she said.

Her other grandson, Blake Desantis, is starting his classes Thursday. He said he is not too upset about doing some days online.

“I think it’s been nice, because we can see our friends on the online classes, too,” Blake added.

Blake will be starting his classes Thursday.

“I think it will work,” said Desantis. “We can’t wait to go full time, but until we find out what’s going on, I think it’s a safe choice. I definitely do.”

George McAvinney is the crossing guard director for the town of Henrietta. He was out early in the morning ready to patrol the intersection on the way to Rush-Henrietta Senior High School.

“We’re anticipating lesser volumes of traffic because of the school’s schedule for Rush-Henrietta where the kids will only be attending two out of the four days,” said McAvinney. “So today’s going to be a litmus test to see what kind of volumes we get.”

McAvinney said he hopes the district doesn’t end up going full-time online for the sake of his employees.

“I think they’d be okay with the unemployment as long as they can get that,” said McAvinney. “So hopefully that won’t be an issue.”