On Friday, April 9, 2021, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) issued updated guidance that changed the physical distancing requirements for schools across the state.  That guidance required all school districts to update their 2020-2021 initial reopening plans to reflect new physical distancing requirements for classroom spaces, music, physical education and food service.  This plan was developed in response to that requirement, and reiterates our commitment to the four priorities that we established during our planning last summer; safety, equity, adaptability and compliance with the state's guidelines.  

Importantly, the district has been proactive in our planning for this moment.  In anticipation of updated NYSDOH guidance, we convened our three working groups, our building-based shared decision-making teams and our administrative team over the last several weeks in an effort to think through the challenges, solutions and opportunities that we expected would be present in the new guidance.  Upon receiving the new guidance on Friday, we worked over the weekend and throughout the day on Monday to ensure that the work of our teams was informed by the details in the guidance itself.  You will notice that this plan represents our plans for how we'd return students in grades PK - 12 to full-time Monday-Friday instruction because the update NYSDOH guidance envisions all students returning to school full time once the Community Transmission Rate allows.  While we can only enact the elementary  part of this plan at this particular time, we will be ready to expand the opportunity of full time in person learning to more students once the guidance allows us to do so.

Finally, this plan is the product of thoughtful collaboration among more than 100 people who perform every role in our school community.  We are grateful for their insight and expertise.