November Updates from Dr. Ron Hattar

November 5, 2025

Dear Yorktown School Community,

I hope this email finds you and your family well and eagerly anticipating the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday with loved ones.  As we turn the calendar to November, I wanted to provide an addendum to our monthly newsletter with some key information.  As always, thank you for your partnership and support of our excellent school district.  

School Supply Giveaway

Our district recently received two very generous donations of assorted school supplies from the Elks Lodge in Yorktown.  We are deeply grateful for their support of our students and families.      

Thanks to their kindness, we were able to distribute many school supplies to our schools through our dedicated social workers and school principals.  After distributing supplies across the District, we still have many items remaining.  The items include backpacks, drawstring bags, binders, folders, pens, markers, crayons, erasers, composition books, notebooks, filler paper, etc.    

As a result, we will be hosting a School Supply Giveaway for our community on Saturday, November 15 from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in front of the Central Administration Building.

Families are invited to stop by and pick-up up to three items per student, while supplies last.

We hope this event helps support our students as we continue through the school year. Once again, we extend our heartfelt thanks to the Yorktown Elks Lodge for their generosity and commitment to our community.

We look forward to seeing you on November 15th!

Winter Preparation

Despite our best efforts, weather-related school delays and closures are inevitable this school year.  We take snow calls very seriously in our district.  We recognize the challenges presented to families when schools are closed, delayed, or released early.  We equally recognize the importance of maximizing instructional time with our students.  Most importantly, we recognize that the safety of our students, staff, and bus drivers must (and will) always be our highest priority.  Consequently, when we are faced with roadways and weather conditions that may jeopardize safety, we will always choose safety.  

When deciding on a snow closure, delay, or early dismissal we take into consideration:

• Weather Forecast: Our district contracts with two meteorology services, and we largely rely on the information they provide to us to make a decision on school.  Timing, intensity, temperatures, and ice potential are especially important.  However, meteorology is an imperfect science.  While the weather forecasts are generally accurate, there are times when the actual weather will vary from what was forecasted.  Unfortunately, the decision to close/delay/dismiss early must be based on the data that we have at the time--without the benefit of hindsight.

• Road Conditions: With a responsibility to transport all students who are registered to ride the buses, both within the district and to out-of-district placements, our buses do not have the luxury of avoiding narrow or curved roadways or those that have steep inclines/declines during inclement weather.  

• Buses: Our buses transport approximately 2,800 students daily, are on the roads for almost six hours daily, and travel hundreds of miles each day through Yorktown and as far as Ossining and New Castle.  With most of the school buses being rear-wheel drive, snow and ice make road conditions even more treacherous for a bus.   

• Bus Stop Safety: Beyond visibility on dark, winter mornings, when snow has accumulated on non-paved surfaces, there are times when we have observed students waiting for the bus in the street. This presents a great safety concern.

• Students driving to campus: The nearly 200 high school students who drive to campus weigh heavily on our decision. 

• Staffing: Our faculty and staff, several of whom travel upward of an hour in each direction, are part of our consideration.             

• Campus Conditions: The safety conditions on each of our school campuses (sidewalks, parking lots, and driveways) is extremely important.  We have an incredibly dedicated staff who clear our campuses; however, they do require time to remove snow from our campuses to provide the safest possible experience for all who will be traveling to our schools.  

Throughout a snow event, day or night, I maintain very close and frequent communication with Mr. Verboys, our Director of Facilities.  I consult with our transportation contractor, surrounding school districts, our meteorological services, and the Yorktown Highway Superintendent throughout the night.  I also travel the roads at 4:15 a.m. to assess road conditions and surface temperatures.  

My hope is that we arrive at a decision on any delays or closures sometime shortly after 5:00 a.m. using the data that we have.  There may also be instances where we begin with a school delay, and due to deteriorating weather conditions, we make the decision to close schools.  If we begin with a delay, the decision to convert from a delay to a closure will be made shortly after 7:00 a.m.  

We will communicate all emergency school delays, early dismissals, and closures through our phone and e-mail notification systems.  Please note that the caller ID may read differently depending on your phone service provider.  In order for us to be able to contact you in the event of a school delay, early dismissal, or closure, please ensure your current phone number and e-mail address are correct in the Parent Portal.  You may make any changes to our parent portal by accessing https://parentportal-lhric.eschooldata.com//Yorktown.  We will also use our Twitter account, @YorktownCSD, to share school delays, closures, and early dismissals.     

As you likely know, I am a parent in our school district as well.  Please know that I will always treat the safety of your children with the same thought and care that I treat the safety of my own children.   

Respiratory Illnesses

With colder weather now upon us, a rise in respiratory illnesses is likely to follow.  Respiratory illnesses will become increasingly more common in the weeks and months ahead.

To provide you additional information, I ask that you review the enclosed letter from our school nurses.  If you have any questions about the content of the letter or any other health items, please do not hesitate to reach out to the nurse in your child’s school.      

Finally, as a reminder, I ask for your assistance in not sending children to school with a fever.  Children should be fever-free for at least 24 hours, without the use of fever-reducing medications, before returning to school.

Lead Water Testing Results

As you may remember, in 2016 the New York State Department of Health required that schools test water outlets in school buildings every five years.  We recently completed our 2025 testing, and I wanted to share the results with you.  

(Please note that since our last testing in 2020, the allowable parts per billion (ppb) of lead in water was reduced from 15 ppb to 5 ppb.)    

We tested hundreds of outlets in accordance with NYS regulations.  27 outlets (all of which previously had signage indicating that they are not intended for drinking) tested above the 5 ppb threshold.  Of the 27 outlets, 15 were at French Hill, 3 at Brookside, 1 at Crompond, 3 at Mohansic, 3 at MESMS, and 2 at YHS.  These locations are generally bathroom sinks, art room and other classroom/office sinks, and in one instance a (non-drinking) fountain attached to a classroom sink.  Again, signage indicating that the outlets were not to be used for drinking had already been posted at each outlet from our prior testing in 2020. 

No active drinking fountains tested above the allowable limit (5 parts per billion) in any of our schools. 

We will continue to develop our remediation plan for these non-drinking areas which may include continued signage or replacing the faucet or piping in the specified location.

Again, we are pleased that none of our active drinking fountains tested above the limit for lead in the water.  At this time, we have fulfilled all testing and reporting requirements for our K-12 schools, and our results are posted to our website for review.

Closing thought

As we continue our work together to ensure every student in the Yorktown Central School District thrives academically, socially, and emotionally, I want to take a moment to reaffirm one of the core values that supports our mission--respect for each other.

The partnership between our families and our staff is one of the great strengths of our community.  That partnership is something that I am so proud of, and it is one of the most extraordinary parts of our school district.  Families and staff working together, respectfully, toward the shared goal of supporting children is so incredibly powerful.  Each day, we see countless examples of kindness, collaboration, and mutual respect in our schools and beyond.  

Unfortunately, we have also observed a few isolated incidents where communication between adults--whether written, verbal, or electronic--has fallen short of the respectful tone expected under Board of Education Policy 1235.  While these occurrences are rare, it is important that we address them directly and reaffirm our shared commitment to mutual respect in all interactions related to our schools.  Constructive dialogue, even when we disagree, is healthy and models the very behavior we strive to instill in our students--maintaining a respectful tone is not negotiable. 

Yorktown is a very special place.  Our staff is incredibly and profoundly committed to your children, and they work tirelessly to support them.  It is my sincerest hope that the kindness, mutual respect, and collaboration demonstrated in each interaction will be a model for all.  

Thank you for your continued support and partnership.  We are incredibly grateful for our amazing community.  

Respectfully,

Dr. Ron Hattar