March 23, 2020
Dear South Orangetown Families,
In response to Governor Cuomo’s New York State on PAUSE Executive Order, the South Orangetown Central School District has closed all buildings and grounds and moved to remote operations effective today.
The following family supports remain open:
- Daily free, grab-and-go breakfast and lunch service for SOCSD children ages 18 and under will remain available through a walk-up kiosk at the SOMS Cafeteria, Monday through Friday, 9:00AM-12:00PM, on a first-come, first-served basis.
- Weekly meal home delivery will continue on Mondays, 9:00-11:00AM, for registered families. Families who do not have transportation to pick up meals on a daily basis should contact the District Hotline to request home delivery.
- The District Hotline (socsdcares@socsd.org | 845-680-1025) will remain open Monday through Friday, 9:00AM-2:00PM, to respond to questions and requests for meal home delivery and/or non-emergency counseling support.
While the District has not been notified to date by the Rockland County Department of Health (RCDOH) that a current student or staff member has tested positive for COVID-19, this does not mean that our community is virus-free. When an individual tests positive, their doctor or testing site reports the positive result to the RCDOH. Then, RCDOH “disease detectives” carefully reconstruct a timeline to determine potential locations where and dates when others may have been exposed to the person who tested positive. If one of our schools is identified as a potential exposure site, the RCDOH will direct us to notify our community that anyone who entered that school on a given exposure date should participate in precautionary quarantine.
With March 13 as our last date of student and staff attendance, the likelihood of a potential school exposure is diminishing with time. However, community exposures may be occurring. In these cases, potential contacts of newly-confirmed cases will be notified directly by the RCDOH.
Please do not allow the absence of District notifications to give you a false sense of security regarding the potential risk of exposure in our community. I urge you and your families to stay home and, if you must venture out into public spaces, please practice social distancing and precautionary hygiene measures. We wish those in our community who have been directly impacted a swift and complete recovery.
Please remember that each of us plays an important role in keeping all of us safe.
Sincerely,
Robert R. Pritchard, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools