NASHUA – At a press conference Sunday, Gov. Chris Sununu announced the long-term closure of all New Hampshire school districts until April 3 due to the recent coronavirus outbreak.

Later Sunday, Sununu made a second announcement that schools in New Hampshire will be given one week to plan for remote instruction.

The term “remote learning” or “remote instruction” may take on various forms, though, depending on the district and the student’s grade level or classes, officials said.

It appears that, ideally, each district would prefer an online method of remote instruction with an interactive network between teachers and students. This, however, requires each family in the state to have at least one device that is efficiently able to access the internet from their home.

Depending on the amount of students in each household, the number of devices has the potential to increase, thus, remote learning could also lend itself to more antiquated tools such as hard-copy work packets.

Currently, there is little concrete information about plans for remote learning as it varies from district to district, with local officials expected to announce preliminary plans today.

An announcement was posted to the Nashua School District website Monday informing the community that remote learning will start March 23, with updates to follow on specifications no later than Thursday on their website.

Merrimack School District superintendent Mark McLaughlin said Sunday, “Irrespective of the governor’s announcement today, planning is already underway among Merrimack administrators and teachers for the delivery of remote instruction to our students,” and more details are to be released Tuesday afternoon.

For more information visit the districts website at https://www.sau26.org.

The Amherst and Mount Vernon School District, SAU 39, hosted a press conference on Sunday, announcing that remote learning will begin for students on Thursday, and that schools will not re-open until at least April 6.

The plan remains consistent with an announcement made on March 12 by Superintendent Adam Steel, which states, “Our plan is to provide laptops to every student in grades 3-12 that can be used at home during a long-term closure. For grades K-2, we have a limited number of devices to send home if you do not have a personal device for your child to use during a long-term closure.” The next update will be at 4 p.m. today, and each school building in the district will communicate a detailed remote learning plan by Wednesday, sometime in the evening.

School buildings will close at 5 pm on Wednesday, March 17, the SAU office will remain open for essential personnel, phone calls and tech support, and schools will be open through Wednesday for students and parents to pick up materials.

For more information, visit the SAU 39 district website https://www.sau39.org/site/Default.aspx?PageID=2792.

The Hudson School District, SAU 81, posted an update to the district website on Sunday, informing the community that this week, March 16-20, will be dedicated for staff to prepare for remote learning which, will start March 23 and continue through April 3.

According to the website, “Teachers will spend this week preparing lessons and setting up Google Classrooms. There will be alternative methods for people that don’t have access to technology at home. Remote learning will be different for each school level. Early Learning Center – materials shared on Google Classroom to continue supporting their foundational skills in literacy and numeracy. Hills Garrison & Nottingham West – teachers will share lessons and activities via Google Classroom. These activities will be both online and offline. Hudson Memorial & Alvirne High School – will continue to use Google Classroom as the main learning management system to continue their coursework.”

For additional information, call 603-883-7765 to leave a message, email at publicinput@sau81.org or visit the districts website at https://www.sau81.org/home.