Updates

Marcus Whitman Central School District
Reopening Facts and Frequently Asked Questions
Live Document-Updated Frequently
First Published July 29^th, 2020 3PM, Updates 8/6, 8/11

The Marcus Whitman Central School District intends to open schools, if permitted, for the 2020-2021 school year.  The District has created a comprehensive plan for reopening that can be found on our school website, mwcsd.org, (will be made available on July 31^st) and the greatest factor that has been taken into consideration is student and employee safety.

This document should be used in addition to the actual reopening plan to develop an understanding about how school will operate in the Fall.  The plan is subject to change based on regulation changes provided by President Trump, Governor Cuomo, The Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the New York State Education Department.

Questions can be sent to Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D. at cbrown@mwcsd.org or by calling 585-554-4848 x1805.  Questions will be answered individually and will then be added to this document. Thank you!

Facts: (Complete Details are in the Reopening Document that will be Published on July 31^st, but the highlights can be found here…https://www.mwcsd.org/covid-19/updates
under July 24^th.)

Frequently Asked Questions: (We have received the following questions more than one time)

What will the policy on masks be?  Masks will be mandatory for all students and employees (people can provide their own, but we will provide them as well).  When students are in classes that are socially distanced by six feet or more, masks can be removed.  When social distancing cannot be maintained in classrooms, students (and staff) will be given mask breaks. If a student has a medical condition that is accompanied by a note from a doctor indicating that a mask cannot be worn and the student is medically allowed to attend school, they will be socially distanced on the bus, in classrooms, and in any other common space that is shared by other students.

Added August 6th: We will have masks for students and staff, but we encourage both to bring their own.  Any mask type that covers the mouth and nose will be acceptable.

My child will need to see the face of their teacher. The District has ordered regular facemasks (both cotton and paper), clear masks, and face shields.  If a child needs to see the mouth of the teacher (Ex: speech), the teacher may wear the clear mask.  It is important to note that in ALL guidance documents, masks are mandatory, but face shields are optional.  If an employee or student would like to wear a face shield, they must also wear a mask.

How will transportation work?  Parents will be encouraged to drive their children to school, if they are able. Student driving will be opened to include sophomore drivers.  On the school buses, students will wear masks (unless they are medically unable to) and will be seated one child per seat.  Siblings and children from the same day or child-care may be seated together as well.  

Added August 6th: Student driving is encouraged for Juniors and Seniors, driving permits will be mailed home for students to fill out before the year starts.

What if a child refuses to wear a mask on the bus or takes their mask off on the bus? A child boarding the school bus without a mask will be offered a mask by the driver or bus monitor.  If the child refuses to wear the mask they have been given or takes their mask (or the provided mask off) during the bus ride, they will be reported to the Transportation Supervisor.  The supervisor will alert the building principal, and the parent/guardian will be contacted.  The child will either wear the mask on the next bus ride, be driven to school, or will learn remotely for a specified period of time. This will not be a discipline referral, this will be noted as a health and safety matter.

What if the bus driver/monitor or students tests positive for COVID-19?  We are working closely with the Yates and Ontario Departments of Health in this area.  We will be in direct contact with them and they will initiate contact tracing, ask questions of the patient and District as to length of exposure to others, seating arrangement, etc… The Department of Health will then notify the District of any student/employee quarantine that needs to take place.

Will my children be tested for COVID-19 each day?  No.  The District will not be doing any COVID testing.  If there is testing to be completed, it will be completed by a testing site or by the physician for the child.  Parents/guardians will be given instruction on what symptoms to look for in their children.  Parents/guardians are also encouraged to take temperatures of their children.  If a parent/guardian sends a child out to the bus, drives them to school, or allows them to drive, they are assuming the responsibility that they were “well” when they departed for school.  The District is required to use “robo-calls”, email, and other methods of communication to remind parents of this responsibility.  The District is also required to survey parents on a “periodic” basis.

How are staff, visitors, and guests being screened?  Employees will be trained regarding COVID symptoms and how to spot them in themselves and others.  Employees will be instructed not to report to work if they have any COVID symptoms as well as what to do next.  Employees not exhibiting symptoms will complete a survey each workday that will be kept on file.  Visitors/guests will be extremely limited in all buildings. If a visitor/guest must be allowed access to a building, they will have a temperature check, and will complete the survey electronically before being given access to any building.

What if a student or employee is at school and does not feel well and displays COVID symptoms? Each building now has an isolation room that will be monitored.  If an employee or staff member exhibits the symptoms above, they will be taken to the isolation room, and checked by a nurse.  For students, parents/guardians will come to get them and they will follow the advice of their physician.  Employees will seek medical attention.  The following exhaustive guide will be used to determine when an employee/student can return to school.  This guide can be overruled by the Department of Health, who we will be in contact with for certain cases.

COVID-19 RETURN TO WORK/SCHOOL PROTOCOLS

Employee/Student Has Tested Positive For COVID-19
Employee/Student is to remain quarantined and may return to work/school if:

• 10 days have passed since employee/student exhibited symptoms or since they tested positive if they are asymptomatic; and
• at least 24 hours have passed since employee/student had a fever (≥100.0° F) without the use of fever reducing medications; and
• at least 72 hour period where employee’s/student’s symptoms have improved

Employee/Student Is Symptomatic And Has Had Close Or Proximate Contact1 With Someone Who Has Tested Positive For COVID-19
If employee/student is symptomatic, the employee/student is to remain quarantined and may return to work/school if:

• 10 days have passed since employee/student exhibited symptoms; and
• at least 24 hours have passed since employee/student had a fever (≥100.0°F) without the use of fever reducing medications; and
• at least 72 hours have passed where the employee’s/student’s symptoms have improved

Employee/Student Is Symptomatic But Has Not Had Close Or Proximate Contact With Person Who Has Tested Positive
If employee/student is symptomatic, the employee/student is to remain quarantined and may return to work/school if:

• 14 days of quarantine have been completed or
• 10 days have passed since employee/student exhibited symptoms; and
• at least 24 hours have passed since the employee/student had a fever (≥100.0° F) without the use of fever reducing medications, and
• at least 72 hours have passed where the employee’s/student’s symptoms 7hyhave improved, or                                                                 
• the employee/student has been diagnosed with another condition and has a note from their healthcare provider indicating they are clear to return to work/school or
• the employee/student has a negative test result

Employee/Student is Symptomatic And Has Had Close Or Proximate Contact With Someone Awaiting Test Results
If employee/student is symptomatic, the employee/student is to remain quarantined and may return to work/school if:

• the test result for the other person comes back negative or
• the employee/student has a negative test result; or
• 10 days have passed since employee/student exhibited symptoms; and
• at least 24 hours have passed since employee/student had a fever (≥100.0°F) without the use of fever reducing medications; and

• at least 72 hours have passed where the employee’s/student’s symptoms have improved or

• the employee/student has been diagnosed with another condition and has a note from their healthcare provider indicating they are clear to return to work/school

Employee/Student Is Not Symptomatic But Did Have Close Or Proximate Contact With Person Who Has Tested Positive
If the employee/student is not symptomatic, the employee/student is to remain quarantined and may return to work/school:

• after completing 14 days of self-quarantine; or
• the employee/student has had a negative test result after having had close or proximate contact with a person who has tested positive Employees Only:

However, if the employee is deemed essential and critical for the operation or safety of the workplace, upon a documented determination by the District Superintendent in consultation with appropriate state and local health authorities, the exposed, asymptomatic employee may return to work so long as the employee adheres to the following practices prior to and during their work shift, which should be monitored and documented by the employer and employee:

• Regular monitoring: While at work the employee must self-monitor for a temperature greater than or equal to 100.0 degrees Fahrenheit every 2 hours and symptoms consistent with COVID-19 under the supervision of the Health and Safety Coordinator; and
• Wear a mask: The employee must wear a face mask at all times while in the workplace for 14 days after last exposure; and
• Social distance: The employee must continue social distancing practices, including maintaining, at least, six feet of distance from others.
• Clean and disinfect workspaces: The employer must continue to regularly clean and disinfect all areas, such as offices, bathrooms, common areas, and shared electronic equipment.
• Maintain quarantine: The employee must continue to self-quarantine and self-monitor for temperature and symptoms when not at the workplace for 14 days after last exposure.

Employee/Student Is Not Symptomatic And Has Had Close Or Proximate Contact With Someone Symptomatic And Awaiting Test Results
If the employee/student is not symptomatic, the employee/student is to remain quarantined and may return to work/school:

• after completing 14 days of self-quarantine; or
• the employee/student has a negative test result; or
• the person whom the employee/student had close or proximate contact with has a negative test result Employees only:

However, if the employee is deemed essential and critical for the operation or safety of the workplace, upon a documented determination by the District Superintendent in consultation with appropriate state and local health authorities, the exposed, asymptomatic employee may return to work so long as the employee adheres to the following practices prior to and during their work shift, which should be monitored and documented by the employer and employee:

• Regular monitoring: While at work the employee must self-monitor for a temperature greater than or equal to 100.0 degrees Fahrenheit every 2 hours and symptoms consistent with COVID-19 under the supervision of the Health and Safety Coordinator; and
• Wear a mask: The employee must wear a face mask at all times while in the workplace for 14 days after last exposure; and
• Social distance: The employee must continue social distancing practices, including maintaining, at least, six feet of distance from others.
• Clean and disinfect workspaces: The employer must continue to regularly clean and disinfect all areas, such as offices, bathrooms, common areas, and shared electronic equipment.
• Maintain quarantine: The employee must continue to self-quarantine and self-monitor for temperature and symptoms when not at the workplace for 14 days after last exposure.

Employee/Student Has Traveled To A State Designated As Having Significant Community Spread
Employees/students who travel to a designated state with significant community spread must notify their supervisor/principal of their travel plans including the state being traveled to, along with the departure and return date.

• If an employee/student has traveled from within one of the designated states with significant community spread, he/she must quarantine upon re-entering New York for 14 days from the last travel within such designated state.
• The requirements of the travel advisory do not apply to any individual passing through designated states for a limited duration (i.e., less than 24 hours) through the course of travel. Examples of such brief passage include but are not limited to: stopping at rest stops for vehicles, buses, and/or trains; or lay-overs for air travel, bus travel, or train travel.
• Employees/students may return to work/school after completing 14 days of quarantine.

I do not want to send my child to school this Fall due to a medical condition or due to parental preference. What is the plan? The District is planning on reopening schools with as many students in attendance as possible.  If a child has a medical note to not attend school, the child will receive their education by a combination of classroom teacher (materials) and tutors, similar to what would happen if a child was out of school due to a broken bone, etc…. Because our teachers will be teaching live to students, our ability to offer 100% virtual instruction to students who are home due to parent preference will be limited.  We will also be asking parents who prefer to keep their children home due to a non-medical reason, to do so for a whole semester at a time (20 weeks), so we can properly distance and schedule the students who will be attending in person.  For UPK, there will be no virtual instruction.  Parents will be given materials from the building principal to consider using with their children.  Children in grades K-2 will have some virtual math and English language arts instruction.  Children in grades 3-5 will receive limited virtual instruction.  Students in grades 6-12 will follow along with their regular classroom schedule.  The teacher will have a Chromebook in their classroom that the virtual student can connect to each day.  Attendance will be taken for students each day, whether they are learning remotely or in person.  If schools are ordered to be closed, UPK-12 students will all receive instruction virtually.

Added August 6th: The type of in-person or virtual opportunities we are able to create will depend on the results of the parent surveys.  If many parents opt for virtual instruction, we may have to alter the number of days we can have students in person (more or less, depending). 

My youth group would like to use the facilities for (insert activity here). Why can’t we use the facilities? Bringing students and employees back to school is going to be a challenge.  We take keeping them safe very seriously.  Our cleaning staff are going to need the spaces to be empty in order to do their jobs efficiently each night and we may be adding shifts to our cleaning schedules.  As soon as we can allow safe facility use, we absolutely will.

Do our school facilities have adequate ventilation?  I have read that we should be opening windows?  We have read the same things, so we contacted the Ontario County Department of Health for expert advice.  At the same time, we had all of our HVAC systems tested by an outside vendor.  All of our systems exceed the minimum airflow requirements (how much outside air is brought into a space on a continuous basis).  The Ontario County Department of Health contacted the regional Department of Health and the answer is that opening windows is not going to help or hurt the spread of virus droplets with the type of HVAC and filtration systems that we have.  Opening and closing windows will be up to the adult in charge based on room comfort and preference. Spaces that are air conditioned will not be as cool if the windows are open when it is warm out just as spaces that are heated will not be as warm when it is cold out.

Will it be “this way” for the whole school year?  We sure hope not.  We are reading and receiving information almost every day and will be making adjustments to our plans accordingly.  We will be sending frequent email messages with updates.

Will there be sports, field trips, or extracurricular activities this year?  We just don’t know the answer at this time.  Based on the information we have at this time, sports are delayed until at least September 21^st, field trips are canceled, as are extracurricular activities.  We want students involved in activities so as soon as we are able to have flexibility in this area, we will make things happen for students.  

Added August 6th: Students 9-12 will have opportunities for clubs, groups, if possible by Oct. 1.

If I choose to keep my UPK or K student home and not take any resources from the school, do I have to file homeschool paperwork?  It depends, but in almost every case, the answer is “no”.  UPK and K are not mandated grade levels and a parent requires homeschool paperwork for their child if and only if they turn six years old by December 1^st.

What is a cohort and what does it mean to me as a parent or to my child?  Think of a cohort as one group of people who do everything together.  It has been highly recommended to us that we group students in cohorts so that they limit where and how they might be exposed to germs.  Cohorting will be accomplished at the UPK-8 levels.  High School students have too many schedule options to cohort all the time, but groups of students will be placed together when they can.  For example, in second grade, lists of students will be made and each teacher will have a set number of students. This will now be his/her cohort of students.  They will stay in the same classroom and if they move anywhere, they will move as a group.

How large will class sizes be? It depends on the size of the space they are in.  For a typical sized classroom (770 square feet), there will be approximately 14-16 students, unless barriers are used, in which case, there could be a couple more.  This is one of the major reasons why (staffing is the other) why we cannot bring all students in grades UPK-12 back every day at this time.  We need to keep six feet of distance between students whenever possible.  If the regulations change and that spacing is three feet, we can bring all of the students back to school.

Will my child start and end the school year with the same teacher?  In most cases, yes.  Where there could be changes are at grade levels that have more sections to start the school year than they will if we are able to bring all students back at every grade level.  You will be notified well in advance if there is going to be a teacher change, but it is possible.

Will you be grouping students, especially at the elementary and intermediate levels, by ability? We know that some students got more out of the instruction provided in the spring than others.  There are many reasons for this.  This summer, we have focused a lot of our professional development on “gap closing”.  We understand that students will be coming into the Fall in different places academically, socially, and emotionally, and we want to be prepared.  When making class lists, care will be taken first to try and have all of the same family members reporting to school on the same days (when and where we can), and we will then create class lists and will consider grouping by ability (when and where we can).  It will not be possible to have fully “grouped” groups, but we will not be ignoring the concern either.

How will foodservice work?  While in school, students will have access to a limited menu, but food choices for breakfast and lunch that include hot and cold options.  For students in grades UPK-5, students will have food delivered to them based on pre-ordering.  Students in grades 6-12 will be able to go to the cafeterias, socially distanced, grab meals, and return to their classroom or designated areas.  

For students in grades 3-12, who will not be coming to school every day, there will be food available for them to take home (breakfast/lunch), and we can arrange for pickup by parents.

If a student has an IEP or 504 plan and receives a pull out service (speech, OT, PT, counseling, etc…) how will they receive their services?  We will deliver services to the best extent possible in person on the days the children can be in school .  There is still flexibility with group vs. individual as per guidance and therefore some group services may still need to be delivered individually to honor social distancing.  As far as program delivery that will be determined when we know our plan is accepted and we can work out the details of each building.

How will “specials” (library, physical education, art, and music) be delivered?  Right now, students are not allowed to share materials so we will not be allowing students to check out library books.  Instead, students will use their Chromebooks and will have access to two very large “full book” sites and they will be able to download the books (if they do not have adequate Internet access at home) or stream them.  We will allow students to check out library books as soon as we are notified that they may share materials.

• Every student will receive physical education, and it will occur outside as much as possible.  When outdoor physical education cannot be offered, students will participate either in their classrooms (UPK-5) or in alternate rooms (6-12).
• Art classes will take place and students will have materials that they will not share.  
• For music, students in UPK-2 will not receive music instruction until January.  Students in grades 3-8 will not have chorus but will have lessons and other musical activities,  Students in grades 9-12 will have chorus that will be held in different locations to provide social distancing.  Those locations are still being discussed as the schedule is built.
• Students will have band beginning in 5th grade and we are working on ways to provide the experience and lessons both virtually and in person.  We expect to have virtual concerts for both band and chorus at some point in the first part of the school year.
• Added August 6th: Band and Chorus will be offered to grades 9-12

I will be dropping off children at both Valley and Gorham, is that okay?  Of course!  The start times are now the same but you can work with the principals and they will work with you to get each child dropped off as efficiently as possible

Added August 11th: If my child is receiving completely virtual instruction, will they still have access to breakfast/lunch? Yes.  Our food service department will have grab and go breakfast/lunch options for those who will be receiving their education completely virtually to begin the school year.  We will probably not be able to deliver, as our bus drivers will be picking up and dropping off students, but parents will be able to come to school to get food.  We will likely have a sign up for that later in the summer.

Added August 11th: If my child is receiving completely virtual instruction, will they be able to participate in athletics and extra-curricular activities once they begin? Yes.  The New York State Education Department has a regulation called the “Bonafide Student Regulation” which states that a student can participate in interscholastic/extracurricular activities if they are taking at least three classes plus physical education and are learning completely remotely.

Added August 11th: Will my child be able to learn completely remotely for their entire academic career? No.  As soon as we are told that schools can open fully or the social distancing requirement is dropped from six feet to three feet or less and we can safely fit all of our students in the buildings, we will discontinue the fully remote learning option. Parents would then have a choice to return their child to school, or select homeschooling for their children.

Added August 11th: Will my high school student be able to use his/her locker?  Yes, on a limited basis.  The high school is unable to cohort due to the complexity of student scheduling so they will be moving from class to class at different times of the day.  Students will be assigned lockers that are socially distanced from other lockers and they will have access to them at different times of the day.

Marcus Whitman Central School District Testing Plan

1.      Any staff or student who displays symptoms of COVID-19, will be placed in a designated isolation space, evaluated and supervised by one of our school nursing staff members who will be outfitted in all of the designated and appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).  

Once the symptoms are confirmed, the symptomatic individual will remain in the isolation room until they are picked up by a parent/guardian in the case of students, or a loved one or can leave on their own accord in the case of a staff member. If the symptomatic individual is picked up by a parent, guardian, or in the case of a staff member, picked up by a loved one or is able to leave on their own accord, they will be encouraged to visit their pediatrician, physician, urgent care facility, or a local testing facility. 

Individuals who are symptomatic will not be allowed to return to the school until they reach clearance in accordance with the Department of Health guidance. 

Marcus Whitman Central School District Contact Tracing Plan

1.      The Marcus Whitman Central School District will coordinate closely with the local Department of Health as they facilitate the contact tracing process. Using our daily attendance and class by class attendance, our student management system, our camera system, seating charts (bus and classroom), and our visitor logs (if visitors are permitted) we will work with the local Department of Health to provide them the information they need to conduct a proper and thorough Contact Tracing.

Good Afternoon-

I hope this is finding you cooler than I am.  My office is currently 88 degrees and has been for most of the day.  It is my new weight loss plan.  Actually, they put temporary cooling in the district office while construction is happening but it just doesn’t reach my office well.  No worries though, I could stand to drop 10!

I wanted to get you up to speed on a few things as we head into the bulk of the week.  For starters, we are going to make a calendar change.  The first day of school for students will be September 9^th, not the 8^th.  The 8^th will be used as a conference day so our employees can complete all of the required COVID related trainings..  We are taking a conference day away from October so we can have the conference day on the 8^th

This week, we will be making updates to the FAQ document as well as the one page infographic.  The biggest change for the infographic is that high school students will have limited use of lockers to begin the school year.  Just about everything else will remain the same as of right now.

Thank you, stay cool, and have a great rest of the week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

I hope that this message finds you doing well and getting ready to enjoy the weekend.  I wanted to bring you up to speed on where we are with plans to reopen in September.  In my last message, I indicated that we would be able to have ALL students return to school at Valley, but we would be unable to do the same in our other buildings due to social distancing requirements. I can now provide more detail and will continue to do so into next week and beyond.

Planning for, organizing, and operating Extended School Year at Gorham this summer has given us an awesome opportunity to see what the Fall could look like, just on a much smaller scale.  We tapped into the teachers, drivers, custodians, and administrators of the program to get their take; things that are working well, things that need improvement, and considerations that hadn’t been thought of when the program started.

We combined those thoughts and suggestions with the results of the surveys and the seemingly endless number of ever changing regulations into the best working schedules we could come up with, by building, to start the school year.  Many thanks goes to the entire administrative cabinet for their long hours and collaboration to help us get to where we are today.  There will certainly be changes between now and the start of school, but it is good to know that we have a solid plan…for now.

As I mentioned earlier, we will be able to have ALL students at Valley attend five days per week.  We are going to keep UPK and K as full-day programs.  You may hear about other schools moving those grade levels to half day programs, but we feel strongly that the programs need to remain full-day. All Valley grades will be taught using the cohort model, meaning that students will stay with each other all day.  Cohorting, especially at the younger levels, was a very strong recommendation in all guidance documents.

At Gorham, third graders will attend in person Monday through Thursday.  Friday will be a virtual day.  Fourth grade will attend in person Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Virtual instruction will happen on Tuesday and Thursday.  Fifth grade will attend in person on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Virtual instruction will take place on Monday and Wednesday.  Gorham students will also be taught using the cohort model.

At the middle school and high school, students will attend in person every other day, using an “A-Day”. “B-Day” schedule.  Middle school students will be taught using the cohort model, and the high school will as well when they can. Students will be split into “A” groups and “B” groups by alphabet (roughly A-K for group “A” and L-Z for group “B”), and great care will be taken to be sure that children with different last names but living under the same roof end up in the same group.

While no hybrid model is ideal, this plan represents the absolute best we could come up with considering the constraints we are facing. As we can get more students back to school, we will.  We will also have plans for students who will be instructed from home.

These are just the schedules.  Attached for your review are the 18 pages of assurances that we also have to have written plans for before we can allow ONE student to enter the building.  We have until July 31st (a week from today) to have these assurances completed and submitted.  We will, and when we do, we will share them, along with opportunities for us to connect, answer questions, and get ready for the start of the school year.

The Commissioner of Education resigned yesterday, and the Governor indicated that he would give his final answer about schools the week of August 3^rd.  Both of these things could bring changes, as could an increase in COVID cases.  For now, this is the plan, and I feel fortunate to be working with such a great team and in such an awesome community2020-21 School Re-Opening Plans - Public School Districts and Charter Schools - 2020 re-opening - 2020 re-opening - GORHAM-MIDDLESEX CSD (MARCUS WHITMAN.pdf .

Thank you and enjoy the weekend.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

We have been working a lot of uninterrupted hours trying to come up with the best scenarios to reopen school, while keeping our students and employees safe, meeting all of the Department of Health and State Education Department guidelines, and trying to meet the needs expressed in the surveys that we recently administered.
 
We do NOT have final schedules worked out at this time, but hope to have close frameworks finished by the end of the week.  What we do know is that Valley Elementary is the only building that will be able to bring students back five days per week. Gorham, the middle school and high school will have to start the year with some type of hybrid model in order to have enough space and staff to maintain social distancing according to the most recent guidelines.  If the guidelines change, so will our ability to include more students at school every day.
 
We do know that the school year will start without athletics (delayed until September 21st at the earliest), extracurricular activities that cannot run completely virtually, and field trips, unless they are to school owned properties and/or are virtual.  We will also not be able to allow use of our facilities by outside groups to start the school year.
 
We know that whatever we start the school with will likely not be what we finish the school year with, so our initial schedules need to have the flexibility to be changed.
 
We have been wrestling with students and mask wearing and received clarification from the Department of Health today that masks will be mandatory for ALL students unless they have a medical or mental health exemption, in which case we will make accommodations for them.  Students who refuse to wear masks when they need to (hallways, common areas, buses, classrooms when 6 ft cannot be maintained) will be given the option to wear their mask or learn virtually at home. 
 
We know that some parents will be homeschooling their children in the Fall, or will not send their children if they need to wear masks, so we are planning for those types of scenarios in our scheduling as well, and we will have an additional survey about this topic in the very near future.  Rules related to COVID are not our rules, but we need to enforce them, and respect the wishes of those who choose not to follow them by giving alternate means of education.
 
We WILL be able to provide busing for our students, BOCES will be running a five day per week schedule, and we will have some sort of ECO program for our sixth graders who were selected for the program. 
 
The key word for the school year is going to be “flexibility”; especially if we want to retain the maximum number of opportunities for students throughout the school year, and if we want to keep our collective patience!
 
Attached are the community stakeholder survey results, and I will write again when we have schedules completed by building, which I hope to be by the end of this week.
 
Thank you for reading, and I will send more information as soon as we have it.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools MWCSD Stakeholder Input about Reopening - Fall 2020 - Google Forms.pdf 

Good Afternoon-

I hope that you are finding ways to keep cool. I wanted to provide you with some updates with regards to the reopening of schools. First, thank you to the over 500 people who completed our reopening survey. I will share the results with you on Monday, and we are using them in our reopening planning.

Our first choice for the Fall is to have all students back in our schools five days per week. Our second choice is to have a hybrid model, where students would attend a portion of the week, and would use the rest of the week to learn virtually.

We will be using math to make the decision for us. The regulations we have been given state that we must provide 36 square feet of space for each student in their classroom, and 144 square feet of space in music the physical education. Students must have six feet of social distance on the buses as well.

Today, we determined that with student drivers, and some parents driving their children to school, we WILL have enough buses to keep our school times normal whether we go with a regular five day per week schedule, or an alternate/hybrid schedule for students.

We are in the process of measuring every space in every building to determine if we can safely house all of our students and staff. We hope to have that completed over the weekend and that will determine if we can go with the first or second scheduling model.

The regulations also state that students must wear masks when they are not socially distanced unless they have a medical reason not to wear a mask. We will be updating our Codes of Conduct to reflect this regulation.

As you know, everything is subject to change at a moment's notice, but we are going to be using the information above to create our first base plan for reopening. I won't be letting a single student or employee enter our buildings in the Fall unless I would feel comfortable enough to send my own children or grandchildren.

I am going to apologize in advance for the amount of communication you will be receiving over the next few weeks, but I feel that it is very important to keep you in the loop at all times.

Thank you and have a great rest of the week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Today, the governor informed us that he will have guidance for the reopening of schools available by July 13th. We will then have until July 31st to submit our plan for reopening, and he will make the decision to open or not open schools in September between

August 1st and 7th. To prepare for the guidance, you will be receiving a link soon to a survey that we would like you to fill out so we can include you input in our reopening plans. Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey; we are all in this together.

Our next Foodlink distribution is tomorrow, July 9th, from 2-4PM at the high school, district office side. Each vehicle can pick up for a maximum of two people. In the event that we may run out of food, we may limit the number per vehicle to one. Thank you for understanding, and hope to see you there!

Thank you, stay cool, and enjoy the rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Morning-
 
Tomorrow night (Friday) is high school graduation, and I could not be more excited.  Our grounds crew, technology department, and high school administration have worked out every detail to provide a safe and unique graduation ceremony that falls within the Governor’s Executive Order for capacity limits and social distancing.
 
Senior families will be receiving two tickets each, and we have figured out a way to rotate loved ones who received tickets through our football field during the ceremony without exceeding the 150 person capacity limit.  We will be live-streaming the ceremony, and the link will be available on our website tomorrow (Friday).  The ceremony will begin at 6PM sharp, and we are keeping our fingers crossed for cooperative weather!

If you did not receive a ticket to attend graduation, we ask that you watch the livestream from home.  The last thing we want to happen is to have more people than we are allowed to have on site, and jeopardize the ceremony for our students. Thank you!
 
On July 2nd, we will have our second Foodlink distribution at the high school, district office side. The time will be 2-4PM and this is open to any community member in Ontario and Yates counties.  I will send out a reminder next week.

Thank you and enjoy the weekend.
 
Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

As we get closer to the end of the school year, I wanted to provide some updates regarding the summer and pre-planning for next school year. 

The last day of dinner grab and go for the school year will be this Thursday.  A special thank you to our food service workers and volunteers for providing an excellent service.

Breakfast and lunch grab and go and will end on June 26^th and will restart again on July 6^th.  Beginning July 6^th, breakfast/lunch will be on Monday’s and Thursday’s until August 13^th.  The Monday breakfast pick-up will provide enough food for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  The Thursday pickup will provide enough food for Thursday and Friday.  In order for us to staff properly and make enough food, please complete this short survey…https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScaXVRk7vAJ2dllOvXN4lzuwmYc-i8Bz7G4G-DlMqwUSUWdGg/viewform. Thank you.

Governor Cuomo announced that a limited number of recreational, non-school sports can begin July 6^th.  Our facilities are not available for possible use by Executive Order until we enter Phase 4 and the Governor opens school facilities to students.  As soon as we receive that information, we will let you know. Our playgrounds, track, and fields are open to individuals as long as you properly socially distance.

We do not know what the Fall will bring as of yet, but we will be ready for any eventuality.  We do know that we will be changing the start time of Gorham Intermediate to match the start time of Valley Elementary.  This will allow Gorham to have its own bus run, which will have fewer students on buses, shorter bus run times, and will allow us to provide more thorough cleaning of buses.  Gorham parents will hear more from the building principal in the near future.

School budget vote day is tomorrow, beginning at 5PM.  We will have the results posted on our website and all of our social media sources.  We will also give the results to the local media.

Lastly, a socially distanced, in person high school graduation is still scheduled for June 26^th at 6PM, with a rain date of June 27^th.  Seniors were given directions and two tickets.  The event will also be professionally live streamed for all to view.  We will have more details as we get closer to the big day.

Thank you and have a great week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good afternoon-

I wanted to take a few moments to bring you up to speed regarding the school budget vote, and graduation.

Governor Cuomo extended the vote date for school districts.  The original date and time that absentee ballots were to be counted was today, beginning at 5PM.  The new date is June 16^th, beginning at 5PM.

The Governor also stated that between 5PM today and 5PM on June 16^th, we can only accept ballots that are received by mail, and after 5PM today, we cannot give out additional ballots.  We have received over 1,400 ballots so far and we will keep you posted about the results next week.

Governor Cuomo also changed his mind regarding graduations. We can now have a socially distanced, outdoor graduation on our football field with no more than 150 people in attendance. 
The class would like to graduate together, and we will accommodate their request.  When we add the class, plus the school employees necessary to conduct graduation, that gives us 110 people.  We are working on ways to be able to include parents in some way, and will have the full plan available in the next day or two.  We will also have the event professionally live-streamed, and a recording of the event made available. Graduation will on June 26th, with a rain date of June 27th. The time will be 6PM, but it is subject to change.

It’s Taco Tuesday on the menu tonight as well as goulash for the dinner grab and go at the HS from 4:30-6PM, and as a reminder, we will be conducting the Foodlink distribution from 2-4 on Thursday, also at the HS and will have 60 pounds of meat, dairy, and produce available to give to families.

Thank you, stay cool, and I will reach out later this week with any other updates that come our way.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

A few moments ago we received information from the Department of Health, outlining parameters for graduation.  Unfortunately, and regardless of how hard we pushed, socially distanced in-person graduations were not approved for this school year.

The options we have been given include virtual graduations, drive-in graduations, drive-thru graduations, in person but fewer than 10 people graduations, and home graduations (school officials will not be allowed to get out of their cars).

Ms. Taft and her crew worked tirelessly to provide the best experience they could for the socially distanced, in-person graduation.  With these new parameters, the team will develop a new graduation plan, taking pieces from the drive-thru, virtual, and in-person but fewer than 10 people categories.  We need to give them a few days to put their vision on paper, and I will relay the new plan once it is completed.

Keeping positive is something that I have mentioned during this whole COVID thing, and this time is no different.  We did the absolute best we could to provide an outdoor graduation experience for students and families, and by no fault of our own, we need to change course.  

We will be in touch with the new plan, date(s) and time(s) shortly.

In other news, thank you for returning your school budget ballots.  We have received over 500 so far.  You have until 5PM on June 9th to have your ballot in the District Office.  You can mail the ballot, use our drop box located at the District Office, or drop it/them off during breakfast/lunch/dinner pickup.

I will write again soon about 

Thank you.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-
 
I hope this finds you keeping cool and allergy free. Thanks to all of you who have returned your school budget ballots, and as a reminder, they can be returned by mail, in person during breakfast, lunch and dinner pickups, or at the district office between the hours of 8AM and 2PM M-F. They can also be placed in the drop box that is outside the district office.  Ballots must be in by 5PM on June 9th to be considered.  If you need a ballot, please contact Sharene Benedict at 585-554-4848 x1805.  

The big question continues to be whether we will be allowed to have an outdoor, socially distanced graduation, and there is still no word on that, except “no”.  We will keep pushing, and I have a Zoom call with Bob Duffy, the person heading up the re-opening of NY for our region, on Monday.  Outdoor graduation will be the very first question I will ask about.
 
We also did receive some clarification about summer school.  We will NOT be allowed to have any students on campus this summer for any type of summer school, Extended School Year, or summer reading program; even if the number of students is less than 10.  I specifically asked that of the regional people yesterday and was told that bringing students onto campus for educational purposes would be a violation of the Executive Order of the Governor.  All of this can change, obviously, but these are the rules as of now.
 
We will have Extended School Year and Summer School but they will be virtual. At this point, we will not have summer reading, but if that changes, I will let you know.  As details become available about these programs, we will let you know as well.
 
Mickey Frieda once again helped us to get more Blessings in a Backpack, so we will have more food to hand out with our usual breakfasts/lunches. That is great news, and thanks to Constellation Brands for their generosity in paying for the shipment.

Thank you for your continued support, hang in there, and enjoy the weekend.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

If you are wondering why you got an extra ballot or two for the June 9th school vote, here is the reason and what we are doing about it...

“I hope that you are finding shade or air conditioning somewhere today! You will never hear me seriously say “is it hot enough for you?” but I certainly feel like saying it!

I wanted to reach out to solve the great mystery of why some of our community members received more than one ballot, what we are doing about it, and what it means on June 9th.

First, we consulted with our school attorney to generate a master list of qualified voters. That list included people who are registered voters and live within the school district boundaries, as well as people who voted in last year’s school budget vote. We also captured students who turned 18 in time to register to vote on June 9th.

That list contained duplicates, which our Board Clerk began the process of removing. At the same time, we worked with a company to print the ballots. That company indicated that their computer system would remove the duplicates, and for us to just send them the master list, which we did.

Once ballots were mailed, we began to receive calls and emails from people who received duplicate ballots. We reached out to the company as soon as they opened this morning and they indicated that the system removed several of the duplicates, but not all of them. We are working with the company now to recoup the costs of the duplicate ballots that were sent in error.

Every voter is entitled to cast their vote one time, and we will be using the master voter list on June 9th to make sure that we do not receive duplicate votes. If you received extra ballots, please recycle them. If you did not receive a ballot yet, and think that you should, please contact Sharene Benedict at 585-554-4848 x1805.

In speaking to our school attorney this morning, this scenario is not unique to us, and is a sign of working through the growing pains of this “new normal”. Once we go through the complete voting process, we will make corrections and adjustments, so it is much more efficient should we need to do this again next year.

Thanks for reading, please help spread the word, and have a great rest of the week!-Dr.B”

Good Afternoon-

I hope this finds you well.  I wanted to bring you up to speed on several items. First, we submitted our plans for a potential in-person but socially distanced graduation to the Department of Health and NYS.  If and when we receive feedback or a decision, I will be sure to let you know.  If in-person graduations are not allowed, we will have a virtual ceremony, but a socially distanced in-person graduation is our top choice.

By now you should have received a budget postcard, and today, the electronic newsletter about the budget, called the Annual Report, will be made available.  Tomorrow, absentee ballots will be mailed to all eligible voters in the school district.  If you have not received your ballot by Thursday of next week, please call our office at 585-554-4848 x1805 and we can help you to get a ballot.  Also, please complete and return the ballot as soon as you can because we have to have them at the district office no later than 5PM on Tuesday, June 9th.  If you do not want to return your ballot by mail, you can drop it off to the district office between the hours of 8AM-2PM M-F, or use the drop box that will be located outside of the district office.  Thank you!

New York State is looking for feedback from community members and parents about the reopening of school and they are using Thought Exchange, the same tool that we used to get feedback from you a few weeks ago.  The link to the survey is... https://my.thoughtexchange.com/333518046 and we are in the Wayne Fingerlakes BOCES when you get to that question.

Speaking of our survey, I would like to test out some new broadcasting software we have tomorrow night at 6:30PM.  We now have our own YouTube channel so you can watch "town hall" and other meetings that we will have.  Our YouTube channel will also give you the ability to send questions to us via the chat feature.  You can find this link at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF57RFmgBLyxbxSNsWCCwUA.  The test meeting tomorrow, which you are all invited to attend, will have the survey results, plans for graduation, and other end of the school year items on the agenda.  If you cannot make it to the live event, it will be available at the same link to watch after the fact.  Thank you in advance for helping us to test out some of our new communication software.

Thank you for reading and have a great rest of the week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I had a really busy day wading into the weeds of COVID life.  One of the meetings was about academics, one was about the budget, one was about the operations of keeping buildings and classrooms clean when students are allowed to come back, and one was getting teachers back into the buildings to collect their personal belongings.  Today, I am going to write about academics.  Next week, I will give an update about everything else.

Academically, Valley and Gorham will be delivering instruction as they have been since schools originally closed.  Report cards will contain narratives only, for the third trimester.  We are coming up with a plan for the last day of new instruction and how we will get Chromebooks back.  Mrs. Cazer and Mr. Pasho will be working with Valley and Gorham staff, parents, and students next week to go through all of the details.

For the middle school and high school, instruction will continue to be delivered as is has been since the original closing of school. The numerical grade that will be used on the report card will be the first three marking periods for the middle school, and the first three marking periods and the mid-term for the high school.  

The fourth quarter will be graded using a rubric (attached).  Students will need to receive a score of “7” or higher in order to pass the fourth quarter.  The report card for the fourth quarter will have a drop down box for the various degrees of passing or failure, plus any comments.

The importance of the fourth quarter for middle school students is that the results will carry into the next grade level for each student, and students may be able to improve their overall grade by how they perform on the rubric.  For high school students, not receiving a score of “7” or higher may mean not being given course credit, or receiving a grade of exempt from a Regents exam (because the course will not be “complete”). High school students can also improve their numerical grade by how they perform in the fourth quarter.  Dr. Cole and Ms. Taft will be providing much more information to middle school and high school staff, students, and parents next week. We will also have a Chromebook return plan developed for the middle school and high school.

Thank you for reading and Happy Mother’s Day to all of the super hero moms out there!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools Marcus Whitman CSD - 4th Quarter Grading Rubric.pdf 

Good Afternoon-

You will be receiving several email messages from me over the next couple of days. This email is about the 2020-2021 school budget vote. As you may have heard, the school budget vote this year will be held by absentee ballot only, and the official budget vote date is June 9th, 2020 at 5PM.

We will be trying to reach every eligible voter in our community by using the Ontario and Yates county voter registration lists, our list of voters from previous school budget votes, as well as our list of 18 year olds who will be eligible to vote by June 9th.

By law, we will be required to send you several mailings including budget postcards, news letters, a financial "report card", and absentee ballots (that will have postage paid return envelopes included).

You will be able to return your ballot via the pre-paid envelope, come to the district office between the hours of 8AM-2PM to drop it off in person, or use a drop box that will also be located at the district office. More detailed instructions will be found in the different mailings that you will receive, but I am always available for help if you need it.

Tomorrow, I will be sending an email that will include the last day of school for students, how they will be graded for the end of the school year, and what to expect from each building from now until the last day of school.

Thank you and have a good evening.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good afternoon- 

Governor Cuomo announced that schools will remain closed through the end of the school year.  Decisions about any type of summer school will be made by mid-may.

I am saddened and disappointed for everyone, but COVID is larger than Marcus Whitman, and largely out of our control.

Our breakfast, lunch and dinner programs will continue, and I will release more information about graduation, grading for the rest of the year, and when the official last day of school will be after I receive information from the state education department next week.

Thank you, and we will make it through this by continuing to work together.

Take care.

Chris

Good Afternoon-

As was mentioned in my phone call, we are using a survey company called Thought Exchange to help us create the best balance between school work and home life.  The link for the survey is... https://my.thoughtexchange.com/549348430.  It is a one question survey.  Once you provide an answer to the question, you will be asked to "star" other comment answers that others have already entered.  Over time, the answers that have the most "stars" will rise to the top as the most important points, and we will be able to make decisions around the answers that are most important to our school community.  Thank you in advance for participating.

Take care.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

First, congratulations to our Board of Education, employees, students, parents and community members for Marcus Whitman being recognized as a New York State Recognition School for 2020, and a US News and World Reports Best High School for 2020. We work and live in a very special place, and I am honored to be at the helm.

Second, we still do not know when or if we are returning to school this year.  The most up to date information is that we will be returning on May 18th, but the Governor is expected to make an announcement about schools next week.  As soon as I hear more, I will relay the information to you.

Be on the lookout next week for a survey regarding instruction.  We are continuing to work together to provide the best balance between school and home and we need your feedback.

Thank you, hang in there, and enjoy the weekend.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I wanted to provide you with an update as we near the end of the week, and head into Easter weekend.  First, ALL of our buildings will be closed tomorrow.  Second, new instruction will begin for middle school and high school students on April 14^th, and April 15^th for Valley and Gorham.  Completed work will be evaluated and counted.  Once we know the status of the remainder of the school year (hopefully in the next two weeks), we will formalize what type of grading we will be using for report cards at each level. Building principals will be sending building specific instruction and grading information home in the coming days.

Third, breakfast/lunch service will be Monday through Friday next week from 11:30AM-1PM.  Dinner service will be on Tuesday and Thursday from 4:30PM-6PM.  

Our website (mwcsd.org) has a link dedicated to all things COVID.  If you missed an email, want to find mental health information, or see anything else that we have sent during this time, you can use the new COVID link.

Thank you for your support, hang in there, and enjoy the weekend.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

A message from the Superintendent:

Good Afternoon-

I hope this finds you full of fresh air on this awesome weather day! The Board of Regents met today and decided to cancel June Regents Examinations. August Examinations are TBD at this point.

At the same time, Governor Cuomo extended school closures until April 29th, at the earliest. We are supposed to be receiving details on both items by tomorrow, and I will update you when I can.

Breakfast and lunch is available this week from 11:30AM-1PM at the HS (Tuesday through Thursday; we will provide enough food for Friday on Thursday's pickup).

Thanks and “see” you soon.

Chris

Good Morning-

I want to thank all of you for your patience as we continue to adjust to this new life we are living.  School is just one of things on our minds these days, but I wanted to provide you with some important updates.

First, we simply do not know when or if students will be returning to school.  The information we are working with right now is that we are out of school until April 15th, unless we are given further direction. We are planning for any eventuality,

Next week is the traditional spring break week, but the New York State Education Department as well as the Governors' office has directed that each school must provide for "continuity of instruction", food availability, and childcare options.

In response to that directive, as well as also finishing the third quarter in an equitable way, we have created a plan.  The grade that students had on March 13th, will be their third quarter grade, unless they complete material that improves their grade before the end of the third quarter, which is April 17th.  Next week, teachers will NOT provide new content, review, or material.  It will be a time for students to make up work if they choose, and catch a breather. 

I will send another message about how the fourth quarter will progress once we have a better idea of how much longer we will be out of school.  New material will be delivered during this time.

Our meal program will continue this week as normal.  Next week, we will provide breakfast and lunch from Monday through Thursday.  There will be no dinner service next week.

As we are all adjusting to our new lives, it is important to create a balance for your children and yourselves, but we need to also move their education forward.  The strength of our continued partnership will pull us all through this.

Thank you for your support, and as always, if you have any questions, please let me know.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of School

Good Afternoon-

This is your Friday afternoon Covid-19 update.  First, we had a very successful week in food service.  We provided over 3,000 breakfasts and lunches, and roughly 1,600 dinner meals.  Thank you to our food service workers and volunteers for providing such a needed service.

Governor Cuomo announced today that schools will remain out of session until April 15th, at which time, he will re-evaluate. 

School construction is now considered non-essential.  We will let you know what impact this will have on our Capital Project timeline, once we know when construction can begin again.

Thank you for listening to and reading all of the information we continue to send out, it is much appreciated. Enjoy the weekend and goodnight.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Our breakfast and lunch pickup was heavily used today, and that is great news.  Due to the volume of meals that people are picking up, as well as the number of deliveries we are making, we are going to use the High School, District Office side as our only point of pickup moving forward.  The pickup time for breakfast and lunch is 11:30AM-1PM.  If you need meals delivered, please call Carla Woolston at 585-554-4848 x 1802.

Dinner service will begin tomorrow from 4:30PM-6:00PM, again at the High School, District Office side.  Tomorrow only, we will will also have non-perishables available for families from the 4:30PM-6PM time.  You will be directed where to go when you enter the parking lot to get both the non-perishables and the meals.  At this time, we are only able to service families who have students currently attending Marcus Whitman.  If we find that we have food remaining, we will send out an alert.  We currently do not have delivery available for dinner, but people can take meals for other families when they pick up their own.  All meals are cooked, refrigerated, and packaged.  Directions will be included on how to reheat the meals.

We met today as a faculty group to discuss how the education process is going.  We are using this week to finish working on how we communicate with families and students, and getting homes and teachers used to the balance of home life and school work life.  We appreciate your patience and help.

I could not be more proud of what everyone is doing at school and in the community to help us work through these challenging times.  We need to stay positive, and understand that there will be bumps in the road during all of this. Keeping the lines of communication open will be more important than ever.

Thank you and have a good evening.

Good Afternoon-

I wanted to provide you with a Friday, March 20th, COVID update.  We handed out or delivered 650 breakfast and lunch packs today to students and families in our community.  I would like to give a huge thank you to all of our employees and volunteers who assisted.  Our food service distribution process will be deemed "essential", so grab and go breakfast/lunch Monday through Friday next week, from 11:30AM-1PM will continue, and we will have grab and go dinners from 4:30PM-6PM Tuesday and Thursday.  Also on Tuesday, we will have boxes and bags of non-perishable foods for Whitman families.  That pickup will coincide with the dinner pick up time of 4:30-6PM.  More details will follow next week.

Parents and Students should continue to check their Schoology accounts for information from their teachers. We have ordered 20 Verizon MIFI units for students who do not have the Internet at home.  They are currently back ordered but will be made available when they arrive. If you do not have Internet access, you will still receive information and communication from teachers as you have been.

Grade 3-8 assessments have been canceled for this year.  We do not have information as of yet regarding Regents Exams, Gemini, or AP exams.

Thank you for being a resilient community.  That being said, this is a time of anxiety for all of us.  We all need to catch our breath over the weekend, figure out what our family, work, and personal needs are moving forward, and hit the ground running (or in our homes), On Monday.  Please remember that I am here for you 24/7 at cbrown@mwcsd.org or 585-554-4848 x1800 or x1805.

Thank you and I will update you with more information as it becomes available.

Have a good weekend.

Good Evening-

I want to personally thank all of you who were able to make it tonight to gather work, clean out lockers, and pick up last minute items.  While I was very proud of the efforts of our staff to have everything so organized, I was sad to say goodbye to students, not knowing when I will see them again.

As a reminder, there is no school tomorrow, but the buildings will be open from eight until noon if you did not get a chance to pick up items tonight.  We will arrange delivery at a later date for any items that remain.

We still plan to begin our grab and go breakfast and lunch process on Friday.  Pick up times will be 11:30-1PM at each of our buildings.  Food will be available for all family members.  A dinner grab and go will begin on Monday, March 23rd, if we are permitted.  More information about dinner service will be sent out at the end of the week, including times of operation.

I met families tonight who have already lost employment due to COVID-19, and others who are unable to get to the grab and go sites.  We will have free and reduced lunch forms at our sites to be taken and filled out if you think you will need it when the students return.  Please call Carla Woolston at 1-585-554-4848 x1802 if you need the grab and go breakfast and lunch delivered. We will do our best to make that happen.

Many of you are under a great deal of stress.  We are here to help you in any way that we can.  Thank you, and I will send another message toward the end of the week, or sooner if necessary.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools