It is now mid July and school districts in the area are still not certain if New York State will allow them to open in September or in what form for the 2020-21 school year.

Marlboro Superintendent Michael Brooks said presently there are three working groups that are considering options for the district in the fall.

“One is focused on the instructional planning, another is focused on health, safety and transportation and the third is focused on technology,” he said. “Right now we have about 100 volunteers between staff members, administrators, community members and board members working in those three different groups. In a theoretical sense they are ready and able to move the actual set plans within the next couple of weeks as soon as we get some guidance from the government. Governor Cuomo has said that he is not going to make a decision until the first week of August.”

Brooks said Marlboro is ready to go in the direction that is indicated by the state.

“We can develop a plan, set it in stone and then communicate it to families, students and staff but until he [Cuomo] decides, it’s just a best guess,” Brooks said.

As has been reported nationally, Brooks doubts the President has the authority to hold back money to school districts that do not open in September.

“If he tries to do that he would face a significant amount of lawsuits on so many levels. That [school] funding is so intertwined with everything ranging from direct aid to schools for low-income students, for special education students, for technology integration and for staff development,” he said.

Brooks pointed out that school guidelines from the Center for Disease Control relate to health and safety matters.

“There are no real revisions to it that we’re anticipating, it’s more maybe for clarifications,” he said. “What you see on the news and what you hear among our elected officials is political fodder. It doesn’t really help us from an administrative perspective on planning and taking care of our children, which is where we all really need to be. We’re trying to stay away from that and we’ll do what is expected of us.”

Brooks said everyone wants the students to be back in school but it has to be done by making health and safety for staff and students the top priority.

“Any significant change from returning to regular school could amount to, depending upon the level, redoing the master schedule and the staff schedules; it’s just so many different things that are in the mix that take a lot of time, which we will put in, but the sooner we know the details that are required of us the better,” he said.

Brooks expects the district will realize some savings as a result of covid-19 and will report on that at the August 20th Board of Education meeting.

“We definitely saved in areas such as with substitutes and in transportation but we also had some increased costs in other areas related to keeping our buildings clean,” he said. “Once it all shakes out in August with our end of the year audit, we’ll know better with what we ended up with.”

Highland Superintendent Thomas Bongiovi and the Board of Education are planning three scenarios for opening in September.

“One is that we’re back with regular school but I’m sure with many guidelines to follow. The second would be partially back, with the younger grades k-5 reporting every day and spread them out throughout the district and the other middle school maybe would be every other day and perhaps high school would be all virtual. These are all just possibilities at this time.”

Bongiovi said Highland is pretty flexible but, “we’re at the mercy of the state and state ed, but there is no drop dead date.” He expects the state will give direction to the school districts very soon.

Bongiovi said graduation for the Class of 2020 is scheduled for July 30, with a rain date of July 31. The times and further details will soon be announced.

“It will most likely be in three different sessions all on the same day with each graduate sitting with two guests that they bring because I don’t think the Governor is going to raise the number from 150 gathered.”

In the Wallkill Central School District, Assistant Superintendent for Support Services Brian Devincenzi has been working with a health and safety team to determine how to incorporate social distancing if the district brings back grades K-6 in a self-contained setting. Bringing grades 7-12 back would be more challenging, as classes transition every 40 minutes. The district is taking ideas from models that other states are recommending, since they may see similar recommendations from the state.

Other factors that must be taken into consideration are transportation and food service.

“Mr. Devincenzi has been doing a great job coordinating with our transportation and food service providers,” said Superintendent of Schools Kevin Castle.

In addition, Devincenzi has also been obtaining masks and cleaning supplies, as well as coordinating with custodial workers and working with the district-wide nurse practitioner to identify isolation rooms and monitoring protocols.

The district is also strengthening its online learning program if distance learning returns in the fall. There are teams working on district learning for high school, grades 7-8, grades 5-6 and grades K-4. Castle added that once health and safety and online learning plans are complete, they will be shared with the board of education and community.

The Board of Education will review the draft reopening plans for September during a special meeting on Monday, July 27 at 6 p.m. Due to the COVID-19 concern in New York, the public will not be able to attend in person; however a live stream of the meeting will be available on the district’s website.