In May, South Orangetown Central School District administrators, educators, health and safety experts, mental health clinicians, transportation planners, communications staff joined the County-Wide Reopening Work Group convened by Rockland BOCES to plan for the reopening of Rockland County schools, in the wake of the state-mandated school closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic which began on March 18 and remains in effect through the end of the 2019-20 school year.
On June 17, the District launched its own task force and subcommittees to focus on reopening planning and logistics specific to South Orangetown schools for the 2020-21 school year. Subcommittees will be chaired by administrators to cover a number of key topic areas, including curriculum and instruction, school health and safety, pupil personnel services, facilities, food service, transportation, technology, staff relations, athletics and communications.
In the absence of state guidance and given the evolving nature of the pandemic, the task force will plan for three potential scenarios: 100% in-person capacity for students, partial in-person capacity with blended learning and no in-person capacity with 100% distance learning.
The task force and subcommittees will be meeting through the summer, with the goal of presenting a reopening plan to the Board of Education by August 1.
Information and updates will be posted on the Reopening webpage, available under Quick Links at www.socsd.org.
District Reopening Task Force Members
Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Brian Culot, Ed.D.
Executive Director of Finance and Management Services Alicia Koster
Executive Director of Pupil Personnel Services Karen Tesik, Ed.D.
Director of Technology George Brady
Director of Staff Relations Joseph Lloyd, Ph.D.
Director of Physical Education, Health and Athletics Bill Pilla
Coordinator of Assessment and Accountability Jeanne Corcoran
Public Information Specialist Jen Citrolo
Instructional Technology Coach (K-12) Marc Eckert
Instructional Literacy Coach (6-12) Mark Stanford
Teacher-At-Large Bill Hughes
William O. Schaefer Elementary School
Principal Sheila Beglin, Acting Assistant Principal Brian Galvin and Teacher Kathryn Cuccia
SOCES PTA Representative Andrea Kheocha-on (WOS & CLE)
Cottage Lane Elementary School
Principal Karen Ramirez, Assistant Principal Rob Schliessman and Teacher Sunita Hill
South Orangetown Middle School
Principal Chad Corey, Ed.D., Assistant Principal Joseph Onativia and Teacher Ron Scherer
Student Representatives Dean Batelli, Mark Cavalli, Angelique Cerbolles and Sue Cho
SOMS PTA Representative Liz Dudley
Tappan Zee High School
Principal Rudy Arietta, Assistant Principals Melissa Luciano and Rich Neidhart, and Teacher Marisa Premus
Student Representatives Rachel Alexandre, Hannah Lustig, Matt Tobin and Adith Vettom
TZHS PTSA Representative Jeanne Irizarry