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Formula For Reopening Schools Given By Governor

The reopening of New York state’s schools will be tied to and look similar to its economic reopening.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the state will use a formula to determine if schools will reopen during a press briefing Monday.

The formula notes that schools will be able to reopen if their region is in Phase Four — the last phase of economic opening. The COVID-19 infection rate must be below 5% based on a 14-day average. However, if the infection rate is above 9% on a seven-day average after August 1, schools will close.

The final formula decision will be made the week of Aug. 1-7 once schools submit their reopening plans following the framework established the New York State Department of Education, who presented their guidance to the state’s board of regents during the latter’s meeting on Monday morning.

The Western New York Region, which includes Chautauqua County, is currently in Phase Four.

Schools will need to follow guidelines — using the department of education’s guidance issued on Monday — once they receive the “green light” to open.

Face coverings are strongly recommended at all times, according to a slide during the briefing, and districts should be able to provide mask breaks for students when they are able to socially distance.

Masks will be required on buses and students should social distance. Foodservice should provide meals in a combination of classrooms and cafeteria if social distancing is not possible in the cafeteria alone. Schools should develop a plan for before and after care and any extracurricular activity must follow state procedures, but — as of now — interscholastic sports are not permitted. More guidance should be released in the coming days.

The guidance also addressed topics related to restructuring space to maximize in-class instruction, screening and tracing, as well as cleaning and disinfecting.

“Everybody wants to reopen schools, but you only reopen if it’s safe to reopen, and that’s determined by the data,” Cuomo said during the briefing. “You don’t hold your finger up and feel the wind, you don’t have an inspiration, you don’t have a dream, you don’t have an emotion — look at the data.”

He added, “If you have the virus under control, reopen. If you don’t have the virus under control, then you can’t reopen. We’re not going to use our children as the litmus test and we’re not going to going to put our children in a place where their health is endangered. It’s that simple. Common sense and intelligence can still determine what we do, even in this crazy environment. We’re not going to use our children as guinea pigs.”

GUIDANCE ‘NO SURPRISE’ TO LOCAL SUPERINTENDENTS

Monday’s news came as very little surprise to several superintendents across Chautauqua County.

Most, if not all, have already begun putting the state’s anticipated guidance into action.

Maureen Donahue, Southwestern Central School District Superintendent, took part in a three-hour work group that provided input and feedback to one of several regional task forces created by the New York State Department of Education. The department then used its findings in Monday’s presentation to the board of regents.

“I think everybody is trying to be very thoughtful, very purposeful that we need to get our kids back to school,” Donahue said. “It needs to be safe, we need to make sure our kids feel safe, our parents feel safe, our teachers feel safe.”

Sherman Central School District superintendent Michael Ginestre was encouraged that the guidelines appear to allude to in-person instruction.

“We’re working on plans now that are in compliance with what the board of regents said,” he said. “We have a pretty good basis to work from. We’ve prepared for every scenario and now it’s just figuring out the logistics of this plan, but so far, it’s going to include in-person instruction.”

Donahue, however, realizes that there is still a lot of work to do in such little time.

“I feel like we have entered into the last quarter of a football game or a sports game and we’re in overtime and they just gave us the playbook,” she said. “We’ve done a good job of conditioning everyone. We are doing a lot of staff development this summer in preparation for what lies ahead, but this will take a lot of work.”

“While this guidance is helpful from a 10,000-foot view, when we get into the weeds with those folks are going to have a lot of questions,” Dr. Kevin Whitaker, Jamestown Public Schools Superintendent, said. “Having gone through smaller versions of this in the past, when you put things together again, the people on the ground who are going through this day-to-day rarely get their questions answered.”

That work will include the formation of a reopening committee, he noted.

“This does provide a framework for our reopening committee that will help guide us in a variety of areas from food service, custodial to instructional,” Whitaker said, noting that a meeting on Tuesday with his fellow administrators in the district will help synthesize areas the committee will need to focus on. “We’ll do some sort of presentation to that committee as to where we stand right now and then pair it with documents from the education department and work to fill in the gaps.”

All three administrators were also encouraged that the guidance provided will also allow for districts to have some flexibility.

“We need flexibility in order to operate,” Ginestre said. “We’re going to have to social distance in the building. We’re going to have to look at a new schedule and physically make sure we can do that with as many students as possible. We might not be at full capacity, but we’ve developed that scenario.”

“(The guidance) is not unexpected,” Whitaker added. “We’ve all been planning for multiple realities. Everything from full return to no return, to something in between. What I think the state has given us is the fact that you can decide any of those plans based on local need

“We really have one plan with three scenarios,” Donahue said. “There are going to be some givens across all plans, but I think it’s either going to be in-person, totally remote or hybrid.”

The question that remains, too, is that of finances with a 20 percent cut in state aid for each district still looming and equipment such as air filters and infrared thermometers becoming a need.

“Financially, some of it’s not going to be do-able if we don’t get some indication as to where some of the funding is going to come,” Donahue added. “It’s going to require some additional things to happen. We’re all working with paired down staff and we still do not have the final say from the state monetarily.”

Nevertheless, the superintendents are still going to do their due diligence in trying to work within their communities to make this transition as smooth as possible.

“I know that parents and teachers and other folks coming back to work are very anxious and want to know the answers and exactly how it will work,” Whitaker said. “I don’t have those. We will soon. This reopening group is going to do some great work.”

“Our parents and community and school board have been fantastic in supporting us at this time,” Ginestre added. “We really appreciate the response we’ve seen from the community… Their opinion matter to us and we’re going to to continue to seek their input because we’d love nothing more than to have all of our students back this fall if we can.”

“We’re going to continue to work together as a region, work together as a district and work together with our communities,” Donahue added. “I don’t think there were any real surprises (on Monday). But, I do think the work ahead of us is significant.”

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