While state policymakers grapple with the multiple and immediate crises brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, some are also trying to look a few months down the road to when the public health emergency may — or may not — be abating.

During the weekly teleconferenced meeting Wednesday of the General Assembly’s Joint COVID-19 Response Legislative Workgroup, experts spoke briefly about how a post-crisis Maryland might return to normal.

The main takeaway: It won’t be like flipping a switch. And Karen B. Salmon, the state superintendent of Education, warned that “distance learning” may have to be continued into the beginning of the next school year.

“It’s not done and done at that point,” said Joshua M. Sharfstein, a former Maryland Health secretary and vice dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “It’s not turning an off and on switch. It’s a dimmer metaphor.”

Marylanders will have to get used to the idea that they’ll only be able to return to their normal lives slowly, Sharfstein said — just as a dimmer brings the light up slowly. But it’s also possible, if a second wave of the virus hits, that the light may have to dimmed or shut off completely for another undefined period, he said.

Sharfstein and other public health experts told lawmakers that there aren’t enough data about how other states and countries are beginning to emerge from the spike in coronavirus cases to determine how Maryland should proceed when the worst is over.

But the state’s education system, already on lockdown for almost four weeks, could see significant and permanent change, officials said.

“I’m not sure we are going to be doing school in the same way going forward,” Salmon told lawmakers. While state schools are shuttered until at least April 27, Salmon said the state Board of Education is set to meet twice over the next several days, and while she did not say so, it seems inevitable that schools will stay closed for the duration of the academic year. But Salmon also suggested that local school districts should be prepared to extend distance learning, the home-based instruction — which is still only beginning to get under way in an organized fashion — into the new school year, if health officials deem that necessary. During the videoconference, Sen. Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George’s), the chairman of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, wondered whether the pandemic — and the prospect that students could miss almost half a year of classroom instruction, if summer vacation is factored in — should prompt officials to consider moving to a 12-month school calendar. “It seems like an ideal time to begin a conversation” about the concept, Pinsky said. In a letter sent Tuesday to Salmon, members of the state school board and other education leaders, Pinsky laid out his concerns and suggested remedies at greater length. “I suggest an immediate conversation about starting year-round schooling, either in pilot areas or countywide, beginning, possibly, this summer or next,” Pinsky wrote. “Additionally, and more importantly, the conversation should not be limited to making up for the time lost as a result of the coronavirus. Consideration, particularly if it proves successful in the short term, should be given for ongoing implementation. “We are in a unique time with major, immediate instructional challenges: not only do we need to do our best to salvage learning from home during the possibly next thirteen weeks, but longer term, how do we make up for lost learning and get students back on grade level? “At a minimum, I would suggest considering the use of some of the coming summer (2020) and/or next summer (2021).” On the video chat with legislative leaders, Salmon stopped short of endorsing Pinsky’s proposal, but said that a year-round school calendar would be one of many issues that top Maryland educators would be discussing in the weeks ahead. In the short term, she said, all high school seniors will graduate and all other K-12 students will be promoted to the next grade. Salmon was due to retire on June 30 but has agreed to serve another year for the sake of continuity in the midst of the pandemic.