Reopening planning continues amid new state guidance
Posted: July 15, 10 a.m.
With guidance from the NYS Departments of Education and Health now in hand, the Cobleskill-Richmondville Reopening Task Force held its second meeting on Tuesday, July 14, to discuss how the district will formulate a reopening plan that meets state requirements.
The meeting took place one day after state officials provided more clarity on the regulations that will govern how and when schools can reopen.
State developments
-
The state Department of Health issued much more specific instructions to districts regarding health screenings, social distancing, mask wearing and much more. The 23-page document can be found on the Department of Health website. The C-R Task Force will review the document and interpret what the specific requirements will mean for our return to school. We will share our interpretations with families in the next week.
District planning
By July 31, the district is required to submit to the state a broad outline of its reopening plans for each school. Once those plans are submitted, the Reopening Task Force will work with a sub-committee at each building to flesh out the details and logistics of each school’s plan.
It is also important to note that C-R will work closely with its regional partners in the Capital District BOCES in developing reopening plans. Though specifics of reopening will vary from district to district and school to school, it’s clear that there will be common themes, including:
-
Each school will actually have three plans: a plan for a full reopening; a plan for a “hybrid model,” in which students are in school part-time and learning from home at other times; a plan in which buildings remain closed and students receive online instruction only. The rate of COVID-19 infection in our region will determine which plan will be implemented. It’s entirely possible that the district will use more than one plan at different times during the 2020-21 school year.
-
Although we believe it is important to have as many students receiving in-person instruction as possible, the health and safety of the community continues to be the No. 1 priority. At each step of this process, we will ask ourselves: Is this safe? If the answer is no, we will not move forward.
-
If C-R is able to open for in-person instruction under a “hybrid model,” every effort will be made to have all students in grades K-5, as well as our highest-need students across all grade levels, in school five days a week. To accomplish this while meeting social-distancing regulations, elementary students may be divided into classes and then further subdivided into smaller groups that are together at all times, with limited contact with other groups. This will require significant logistical considerations to be made in the coming weeks.
Key questions
Clearly, each model raises many questions that will need to be addressed before September. For now, though, we would like to share a few key questions from community members.
Q: Who is on the C-R Reopening Task Force?
A: The Task Force includes representatives from many areas of our staff as well as parents, students, and community partners. A full list of committee members can be found by CLICKING HERE.
Q: Will my child need to wear a mask?
A: The state Department of Health guidelines mandate mask-wearing whenever social distancing cannot be maintained and in all common areas, including hallways, entrances and exits. In fact, the DOH highly recommends mask-wearing at all times. Students would be allowed to remove face-coverings during meals, when receiving instruction, and for short breaks, so long as social-distancing is in place, and students who are medically unable to tolerate a face-covering would be excluded from mask-wearing requirements. The district will continue to monitor state guidance for further clarity regarding mask-wearing.
Q: I’m not comfortable sending my child to school. Can my student receive instruction from the district online?
A: We recognize that, for a number of reasons, some families may decide not to return their children to in-person schooling. As our discussions move forward, we will explore alternate pathways, such as remote instruction, for students who either cannot or chose not to attend school in person.
Next steps
The district is in the final stages of developing a survey for parents about their experiences with remote learning this past spring and their opinions on reopening this fall. The survey will be posted on the district website and emailed to families within the next week.
The Reopening Task Force will meet again Friday, July 17, to discuss the guidance from the state Department of Health and how we will meet those requirements at each of our four schools.