Sent community-wide via SchoolMessenger in the weekly SOCSD Summer Update e-blast on August 7, 2020.
This morning, Governor Cuomo announced additional steps school districts must take within the next two weeks as part of their reopening planning process. By August 14, school districts must post their remote learning plan and how it addresses equity issues, their testing plan, and their contact tracing plan. By August 21, school districts must host three discussions with parents and at least one discussion with teachers.
We realize that our community has many questions regarding the reopening plan that was submitted to the New York State Education Department for review last Friday. Although we are still awaiting feedback from NYSED, we intend to have our finalized plan available by August 14, along with the three additional plans the governor announced today.
We’ll be hosting three Zoom webinar parent information sessions on:
- Tuesday, August 11 at 7:00-8:30PM
- Wednesday, August 12 at 10:00-11:30AM
- Wednesday, August 12 at 7:00-8:30PM
Please submit questions by 9:00AM on Tuesday to reopening@socsd.org so that we can be as prepared as possible to address families’ most pressing concerns during these sessions. Staff will receive details for the teacher and staff session separately.
In the meantime, our school and department staff are preparing spaces, schedules and new procedures, and we’ve:
- Launched a parent survey to gauge student attendance plans and technology needs (deadline is August 12*);
- Asked families to complete a Transportation Request Form (English | Español) by August 15 to help us plan bus routing and logistics;
- Created a Plan Updates webpage to help our community keep track of substantive changes to our plan as we move forward with operational and logistical planning; and,
- Posted FAQ #2 on our Reopening 2020.
This is continues to be a challenging time for all of us. Please know that we are doing our best to ensure that, regardless of the circumstances, our students and staff will have a safe and successful start to the 2020-21 school year. We appreciate your enduring patience, understanding and support and look forward to hearing from you.
*Updated on August 9 to reflect deadline extension.