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, 8/19

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
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 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.

Added August 19th: From the parent meetings held on YouTube

​How many kids can not wear a mask until the bus has no more room left

Bus drivers will have a supply of masks available and offer the child to wear it. Child puts a mask on and sits in their seat.  All seats will be assigned on the bus.  One child per seat. Siblings and children from the same childcare/daycare facility can sit together. If a child chooses not to wear a mask or refuses to take a mask,  the child will sit socially distanced from other students.  Parents will be called to pick up their child.  If a child won’t wear a mask they will receive their education virtually  until they are comfortable wearing a mask.

​For parent drop off, are there going to be specific drop off spots at each school? Example, at the valley school, will we drop off by last name of A-G at one spot, H-P at another? I just think that all the students going into one entrance will be very congested.

Principals are looking at traffic patterns and there will be designated areas.  

​Will students have extra time more than to wash hands in between classes?

Students will be able to use hand sanitizer during class and frequent hand washing breaks.  This method worked well with the extended school year program.  

​Is there a process to record daily screenings of kids, compare to in person attendance and assist in contact tracing if it becomes necessary?

We could , but unfortunately we can’t due to the HIPPA requirement.  The District is purchasing GPS software to put on the buses.  Parents will know how soon their student will be picked up and dropped off at school.  Students will have swipe cards to get on the bus and use in the cafeteria.  District has cameras outside the buildings and inside, hall passes, bathroom passes; these are all records the District is keeping for contact tracing.  Dept. of Health is aware of our record keeping and will work with us. 

​Are students dropped off by parents required to have their parents pick them up?

Yes, parents can drop off or have transportation take students home or transportation can pick students up in the morning and then parents can pick up at dismissal.  We realize parents have childcare needs.  For instance Monday-Wednesday school transports to one daycare then on Thursday and Friday transportation can take  students to another daycare.  Students on the buses will need to wear a mask and on certain days we may have more than 22 students on the bus.

What symptoms would a child have to have while in school to be sent home or isolated?
If a student is not feeling well, the student will go to the nurse's office.  The nurse will check over the student.  If the student is showing signs/symptoms of COVID the students will be in an isolation room.  They are not being left alone.  Parents will be called to pick up their child.  If the student is not feeling well with other symptoms, headache,etc. The nurse will call parents to let them know their child is not feeling well and to pick the child up.

Are they still going to be having an orientation for 6th graders?

This will be held virtually.  Dr. Cole will be putting out communication about this event soon.

​Will HS students who don't have lunch in their schedule be allowed to eat/drink in a classroom or study hall?

For some students taking additional courses or going to BOCES lunch is not their schedule. This is not going to be an issue. There will be an area where the students can eat and then go to their classroom.

​What if my kindergarten has problems with putting on the mask and needs help ?

There will be a training video released soon for community, parents and staff to view.

​Will there be more student sick days allowed then to promote staying home?

Unfortunately no, as a public school we need to stay within the parameters of New York State Education Dept. guidance.

​My question is are kids aloud to bring their own hand sanitizer and tissues to keep at their desk?

They can bring tissues to keep on their desk.  The District will have enough hand sanitizer  on hand for students to use throughout the day.

​Will the MS/HS administration be sending/mailing home a class schedule for those students that cannot attend school on opening day due to their grouping? And what does the grouping look like?

Schedules should be mailed out early next week. 

​Will there be a bus orientation for UPK and new kindergarten students? 

Unfortunately this will be held virtually.  

​Will there be a staff member with students if they need to go to the isolation room due to illness? 

Yes, an isolation room  is for when a student is showing signs of COVID.  Teacher will send the student to nurse.  Nurse will evaluate and if the student has symptoms to warrant possible COVID. Student will be in an isolation room with another staff member.  Parents will be called to pick up their student.  The staff member will walk the student out to the parent vehicle.  Each building has an isolation room.

Will multiple students be isolated together? 

No, the buildings have other plans for that.

​Will there be a 10th period? Will there be clubs/jazz band?

There will not be a 10th period to start the school year.  We want to make sure we have the bus runs down, cleanings and safety protocols down.  We want to offer clubs and activities for the students.  They will begin virtually and then bring together in person sometime in the school year.  Dept. of Health is telling us no field trips, no athletics. It’s a challenge.  10th period is important to us and some students will have a 10th period science lab. We plan to have 10th period and clubs we just can’t start the school year with them.

​Will there be any sort of meet and greet for students at valley? Specifically UPK?

We are not going to be able to do it in person for this year.  Buildings and Grounds crew has a lot of work to do. They have been working since March with no students.  The amount of work that needed to be done during the Extended School Year program and moving desks around in classrooms, storage for desks and deep, deep clean in order to bring students back.  Dr. Cazer will be doing a virtual welcome for UPK and virtual bus orientation and then as they come to school by group get them familiar with bus safety. 5th to 6th grade Dr. Cole putting together a virtual orientation for that.  Ms. Taft in the HS is putting together a freshman orientation  taking place outside where students can be distanced.  We are trying to make the best of the situation.

​Will buses have bus monitors to ensure students wear masks?

No, bus monitors are required on buses  based on the need of the  student.  As your child boards the bus, they need to have their mask on. We will be monitoring once the student boards the bus and takes their mask off, Superintendent will call parents to discuss how long the student will be taking their classes virtually.  Students will need to take the mask seriously.  It will take time to teach the students how to wear the mask.

​What are the most important, most helpful things you'd like parents to do to prepare our kids for school this year?

Start working with your child wearing a mask.   We will have plenty of signage and staff to keep students socially distanced.  It’s really getting them used to wearing a mask.

​What if numbers go up? Are we able to change our minds and go completely virtual? 

As parents, you have complete control over your child's education.  You are sending us your greatest gift.  On the survey we asked parents to consider a semester long decision,  Maintenance and Transportation departments have been working hard setting up bus runs and desks in the classroom.  If a student comes 3 days and then home 2 days we can’t accommodate for that. We understand things change.  Parents chose at home instruction and then possibly parents change jobs and student needs to go to school.  Superintendent will say ok and we are going to try to accommodate whatever you need.  If your child started in school then got uncomfortable and wants to go virtual? Yes.  The only time virtual will go away 100% is when the Governor says all children can come to school.  Until then, we will work with the parents.

When will the kids that go to School on the 10th of September when will they get there chromebooks

Chromebooks and mifi  units will be given out for MS/HS and mifi before the start of school.  Valley/Gorham handing out the first day of school and then go from there

​H.S. Band runs ACE, Chorus BDF... If a student is enrolled in both, how will that work when our H.S. students attend in-person alternating days?

There have been some significant changes to HS schedules.  Physical Education is not running opposite of Science Lab.  Those have been broken out to give students both experiences in person.  You have to give our music staff moree time to work out those details and they will.  There may be some pieces in person and virtual.  We are trying to make it as much in person as much as possible.  Dr.Cole and Ms. Taft will be getting that information out.

​When will students get their schedules?

Gorham/Valley students will get their schedules early next week.  MS/HS next week.

If we have to keep our child home, who isn’t feeling well, will we be able to have them remote learn on that day?

It depends on grade levels.  If it’s Valley/Gorham probably no.  If it’s MS/HS maybe.  Principals are working through schedules.  We will have more information coming regarding specific grade levels.

Will MS students that have accelerated math and/or science be in the same cohort or will they be leaving their cohort for math/science?

Yes.  7th grade accelerated Math will be in one cohort and 8th grade accelerated Science will be in a single cohort.

For MS will the students bring all supplies back and forth every other day?

Yes.  We would like to get the students to lockers at some point.  We are keeping in line with the guidance to cohort students as best as we can.

I have concerns about my children keeping track of their swipe card required to enter the bus.  Are these easily replaceable?  Maybe I could attach it to the backpack?

That is a great idea.  We will find different ways for the students to keep track of their swipe cards.  We are also looking at some lanyards that can hold the swipe cards.  They are easily replaceable and we will work together to accommodate the students. 

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.

Parent Forum #1 8/17/20

Parent Forum #2 8/17/20

Parent Forum #3 8/18/20

Parent Forum (Remote or Hybrid) 9/22/20

Parent Forum (Virtual Learners) 9/23/20

Virtual Town Hall 10/21/20

Virtual Town Hall 10/28/20

Virtual Town Hall 11/17/20

Virtual Town Hall 1/14/21

Community Return to School Town Hall 4/13/21

Good Morning-

I hope everyone had a great week.  I lost four pounds this week, but I am not sure it was all from diet and exercise.  The humidity at the beginning of the week was pretty tough to deal with, but we made it, and the long range forecast looks good!

Thanks to all who continue to come to Foodlink.  We have one more distribution this school year on June 24th, and then we will have pop-up pantries at school.  I will get you more information about those once we have the information.  I CANNOT thank our volunteers enough.  Through thick and think, they have been there to help support our community, and they will continue to do so.

I wanted to bring you up to speed on a few things that I think you will find useful to know, and interesting.  The first thing has to do with our work in selecting English Language Arts curriculum.  I have been through this process more than a few times over the past twenty years, and I have to say that the professionalism, thorough work, and attention to detail of our ELA committee was very humbling and appreciated.  The group narrowed down their choices to two, Wit and Wisdom, and CKLA.  Both are research based, and align to the Science of Reading Work we have been doing.  I have a little more work to do, but a decision will be made by the end of next week so we can prepare for training this summer, and implementation this fall.

I know that we only have a few weeks of school left, but we would like to truly test our new app called Here Comes the Bus.  This app works on smartphones and computers and allows parents to see where their child's bus is when it is three miles or less from your stop (you can customize it.). The flyer for the program is attached for your reference and use.  Right now, the app is available for students who ride buses 196, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 216, 217, 218, 220, 221, 226, 228, 229, 230, and 231.  The remainder of our buses and vehicles will be equipped this summer for use in the fall.  If you child rides one of the buses above, PLEASE help us by trying the program and providing feedback.  The flyer is a little dark and where to get help might be a little challenging to read. The email address to provide feedback or to get help is hctb@mwcsd.org, or you can call the bus garage directly at (585)554-4848 x1961. Thank you!HCTB.pdf 

Our capital project is 87% complete (not a joke, there is a formula to determine how complete the job is) and it shows.  The newest addition is our electronic signboard that can be seen on either end of Baldwin Road as you head to the high school/middle school campus.  It is very energy efficient (LED) and will operate from 5AM until 10PM each day.  We received training on how to use the sign so you can expect it to display more than the name of our district and the time and temperature very soon!  We are also getting closer to being able to allow some limited tours of the construction progress, so be on the lookout for invites to that this summer.

Our summer program is continuing to grow, and we hope that your child can be a part of it.  If you have questions about the program (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cHBsMHElIukmF1nP2Sje1XNCnMXx1gdT/view) please contact Scott Robinson at srobinson@mwcsd.org.  

Last night was senior awards, and I am signing diplomas today.  Graduation is around the corner, and we are almost across the finish line.  Thanks for all of your support and have a wonderful weekend.

Attached is a better copy of the flyer for Here Comes the Bus.  As a reminder, if you child rides bus 196, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 216, 217, 218, 220, 221, 226, 228, 229, 230, and 231, the program is available now.  Our other buses will be equipped by the fall.  For help an troubleshooting, please use hctb@mwcsd.org or call the bus garage at (585)554-4848 x1961. Thank you!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of SchoolsHCTB_2021-05_Marcus Whitman Central School District Support Package_Flyer_01.pdf 

Good Afternoon-

Today during his press conference, Governor Cuomo stated that wearing masks in school buildings and on buses will continue through the remainder of the school year most likely.  Masks do not need to be worn outdoors at any time while on school property. This includes spectators to athletic events on our campus.

I understand that this is news you wanted or didn't want to hear, and that will cause emotion.  My role is to enforce what we are directed to enforce, and I appreciate your understanding.  Once we have the official letter from the state regarding this, I will pass it along.

Thank you, and have a great evening.

Chris

Good Evening-

It is expected that the state department of health will be issuing guidance effective Monday, June 7 that employees, students, and visitors to schools will no longer be required to wear masks while on school property, including buses.  The guidance will specifically read that non-vaccinated people are strongly encouraged but not required to wear masks and vaccinated people do not need to wear masks.  This guidance is not official as of tonight (Friday), but we think it will be by the end of the weekend for the start of next week. If people would like to wear their masks while on school property, they will be more than welcome to.

I will be sure provide an update on Sunday evening.  Thank you and enjoy the weekend.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools

Good Morning-

Thank you to everyone who came to Foodlink yesterday, and especially to our volunteers who got SOAKED at the end of the day!  At least it was warm.  Our last two Foodlink dates in June are the 10th and the 24th.  We are working with Foodlink to provide what they refer to as "pop up" food pantries during the summer. As soon as I know what they look like, I will get the information to you.

We have really enjoyed celebrating our seniors, and today is their "Field Day."  If you are a family member or related to a senior, let me express how impressed I have been with how they have handled themselves during this pandemic, and while we are not totally back to normal, it was nice to see them working together last night to prepare the hallways for the festivities today.  I am very proud of them and am looking forward to helping to celebrate them for the rest of the month.

There are a few pieces of non-pandemic news I wanted to share.  First, the budget for next year.  Thanks to your generosity, the budget passed for next year.  The money we will be taking in to balance the budget comes from three places, the tax levy, state aid, and to a VERY small extent, federal aid.  Each school district needs to calculate a tax cap, using numbers that we are provided from other places.  The number identified as the tax cap for us at the time of the vote was 2.57%.  This became the tax levy.

We learned that one of the numbers we were provided to calculate the tax cap was incorrect, and when the adjustment to the correct number was entered, the resulting tax cap, and then tax levy, became 1.33%. This doesn't mean that students will lose anything next year.  The difference in actual dollars between the 2.57% and the 1.33% will be made up in state aid.  What this will mean for you a taxpayers is less of a tax payment than what we projected at vote time.  We will know exactly how much less once we have the new assessment figures, as well as the equalization rates.  In short, the error was in favor of the taxpayers, and that is good news for a Friday morning in my book!

Our summer programming and scheduling is nearly complete, and there will be a LOT of offerings.  Once we have had a chance to proofread the brochure one more time later today, we will be getting it out to the community so you can consider offerings and begin the sign up process.  I am looking forward to seeing more students in the buildings this summer!

Thank you for reading and for your continued support and have a great weekend!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope you are having a good week.  I wanted to get you up to speed on how we will be handling the warmer weather we are expected to get the next few weeks and how that will impact mask wearing. With the current guidance for mask wearing, students who are attending classes outdoors, are at recess, or are in physical education classes do NOT need to wear masks, regardless of their physical distance to others.  Students participating in athletics have their own set of rules that are different and have been in use since the beginning of the spring season.

Since 2010, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) has given us guidance on how to handle warmer temperatures for athletes.  We use the same guide when it comes to allowing our students out for recess, physical education, and outdoor classes.  Those guidelines can be found here (http://www.nysphsaa.org/Portals/0/PDF/Safety/Heat%20Index%20Procedure_1.pdf) and are actually a pretty  good read.  

If you don't have time to read the document, basically, the "Feels Like,", found on weatherbug.com needs to be over 96 degrees to prevent students from being outside.  The temperature will not be near that at any point next week unless the long rage forecast drastically changes.

In the buildings, we have air conditioning at the middle school only.  The high school normally has air conditioning but it is off, due to the construction project.  I am hopeful that we can add air conditioning to the Valley and Gorham buildings in a future capital project, but they do not have air conditioning as it stands today.

Our employees have been very generous with mask breaks in the classrooms, and that will continue.  My hope is that with a combination of mask breaks in the buildings, classes being held outside on a regular basis, and outdoor physical education and recess, that we will make it through the month of June.  If masking regulations do not change for the Fall (and I sure hope they DO change), we will have the same set of rules most likely.  This is another reason why we are vey happy to have all of our students here this spring; so we can continue to work through hurdles that may exist in the Fall.

There are other updates that I will be providing about other topics in the coming days, but I wanted to get this out to you sooner than later.

Thank you for your continued support-

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Morning-

I hope that everyone had a great weekend.  I wanted to bring you up to speed on several different things as we head into the week.  First, we DO have Foodlink on Thursday, beginning as close to 2:30PM as the delivery trucks will allow.  Hope to see you there.  The remaining Foodlink dates after this Thursday are June 3, 10, and 24th. Foodlink will be changing their food distribution format after the distribution on the 24th to more of a pop up pantry style.  We have partnered with the Friendship House to make this happen, and once we know the format, we will let you know.  They will still be held at the high school campus, and they will likely be once or twice a month.  We do not know what kind of food as of yet.  Thank you for participating.  This has been a HUGE resource for our community, and we are hopeful to continue it well into the future.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the New York State Health Department have, in my opinion, really complicated mask wearing regulations.  Regardless of what we think about masks (I do NOT wear a mask where I am not required to any longer), the rules for mask wearing at schools has not changed. We need to wear our masks while we are on school property. We continue to be the only school in the area to have UPK-12 students at school five days per week, to allow up to 200 spectators at games, and one of a very few to have already offered our students field trip opportunities, a senior social, audiences allowed at student performances, and graduation, where parents will be allowed to attend.  This has all been possible because of our close relationship with the Department of Health, and being persistent about what we feel is best for students.  We have PUSHED every entity possible to lift the mask mandate on school property, but we have been unsuccessful in getting that permission. Thank you for helping us out by wearing your mask while on school property, it means a lot. If you are more than six feet apart from non-family members while attending outdoor activities at school, you may remove your mask as well.  We will use the honors system and assume that you have been vaccinated.

As the temperatures climb (fortunately,) we WILL be giving students mask breaks whenever possible, even at three feet of physical distance.  If they are outside, and six feet or more apart, they will be able to remove their masks.  We have also told our employees that they can wear looser fitting and more casual clothing for the remainder of the year, to help combat mask wearing in higher temperatures. As I tell everyone, I hope this is the last global pandemic in our lifetime.

If you have a child who is 12-15 years old, and you would like them to be vaccinated, we will be holding a clinic at school on May 27th, with the second dose being given on June 17th.  All you need to do is contact our head nurse, Michelle Rohring, at 585-554-6441 x1426 and complete this permission form...https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NKQjcSthtNrmEctUPNg_TXQYtonvZlqn/view and have your child bring it to school.  This is completely VOLUNTARY.  From my vantage point, it is a good opportunity if you would like your child vaccinated because you do not need to be present.  If you go to a clinic off site, you DO need to be present, and that can cause scheduling issues for parents.  Thank you.

We very much support law enforcement, and are proud to call Deputy Lambert our School Resource Officer.  Having worked along side him for two year now, and having worked with "SRO's" for nearly twenty years, Deputy Lambert is top notch.  He is a superior role model, is very proactive in working with our students and community members, volunteers for Foodlink and other activities on a regular basis, and is very thorough in his investigations and decisions, and safety is always his top priority.

He is also very humble.  We are a landing zone for Marcy Flight and other medical flight services.  We received a call last week with we would be used as a landing zone for a patient. Not a problem.  We did what we need to do on our end, the chopper landed, the ambulance showed up, they put someone in the chopper, and the took off. 

Later in the day,.  I commented to Deputy Lambert later in the day that rural areas like ours are fortunate to have medical flight services available because they can really save lives.  He agreed and commented that the flight definitely DID save someone.  I didn't think much of it until a third party told me that Deputy Lambert had saved the life of the person who was in that chopper.  While at school, he heard a call in town about someone with chest pains.  He knew he was the closest car, so he went to the address and began to speak with the person who was struggling.  As the person was describing their symptoms, they "coded." Deputy Lambert jumped into action, performed life saving techniques on the patient, and brought them back to life.  He then coordinated the chopper, and the rest is what you read above.   

Thank you, Deputy Lambert (Officer Lambert when he has his School Resource Officer hat on)! We are very proud and honored to have you working and living in our community.

Lastly, just a reminder that we do NOT have school this Friday, May 28.

Thanks for reading and for your continued support.  Have a great week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope everyone had a great week.  Thanks for your patience and THANK YOU to our awesome food service staff and helpers for making lunches happen during our power outage!

We have finished our second full week with a full house UPK-12, and we are happy to report (still knocking on wood) that we have had NO COVID CASES.  We hope this trend continues, and I would like to personally thank everyone, including the students, for taking our protocols seriously so that we can return to as much “normal” as possible.

I have been asked by many people what the Fall will look like in terms of school.  The Commissioner of Education is supposed to have Fall guidance out to school districts in New York State by June 1.  Ahead of that release, we have been hearing, but cannot confirm, that the push will be to have all schools open five days a week (we already are), at three feet of physical distance (for all activities with the exception of breakfast and lunch), and continued mask wearing.  You know as well as I do that things can change quickly, but if those become the new rules, the only areas in need of adjustment for us will be Valley Elementary, where students are still six feet apart by choice, and music, where students are six feet apart, by regulation.

In terms of virtual education, Marcus Whitman does NOT intend to offer it unless we are forced by either executive order of the governor, or by the New York State Education Department.  If we are forced to offer a fully virtual option, our desired method of delivery will be through a BOCES virtual school that I am on the committee to help create.  In a canvas of the nineteen school districts in the area, it is believed that there would be approximately 130 virtual students per grade level.  Right now, no district has offered any staffing for the program, most likely because virtual instruction has not been mandated for the Fall.  If it becomes mandated, we see the virtual school being put together quickly, with a combination of hiring and bringing any available teachers together from area districts.  We are not going to put any resources into a “plan B” as of yet until we receive further instruction from the state.  We will keep you posted.

We are planning a very robust summer “school/camp” experience at all levels.  Our Extended School Year program, (for students with disabilities), will operate on a Monday through Friday (we have no say in this; it is a federally prescribed program) schedule.  The other programs we are putting together will operate on Tuesday through Thursday (approximate times will be 9AM-2PM), to give employees and parents an opportunity to enjoy some long weekends during the summer.  The summer programs are being operated with federal grant money this year, which has allowed us to expand the offerings.  We need to hire over 50 people (academic, transportation, clerical, food service, etc.)  to make all of this happen.  Once we have filled those positions, we will release all information to the public so people can sign up.  Scott Robinson, currently our assistant principal for UPK-5, will be the administrator in charge of summer programming with the exception of true summer school for middle and high school students.  We are excited for the summer.  Stay tuned for the offerings!

Federal grants will also allow us to bolster three academic areas in need for us.  The first will be to add a piece to the special education continuum related to students who really struggle to read and comprehend.  We will be creating a reading specialist position to satisfy this need and will be offering training in areas such as dyslexia to key teachers so we can help to boost reading and comprehension skills. We would like this position to be in place and working before the end of the summer.

The other two areas where we will be adding support are in general education reading and math.  We will hire both reading and math specialists so assist our teachers so they have people they can depend to be the best reading and math teachers they can possibly be.  Again, there will be support also with available trainings for our teachers. We would like these positions to be in place by the beginning of the school year, if not earlier.  For employees reading this, be on the lookout for job descriptions and application information in the near future.

The positions above are in addition to the selection and adoption of a new reading curriculum that we hope to have completed by the beginning of the summer. For those who have been keeping track of this, we will begin with UPK-5 and then add the 6-8 piece once we have worked out some staffing and operational pieces that recently came to my attention.

The CDC released information yesterday stating that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most places.  New York State is normally well behind (not a criticism, just a statement of fact) what the CDC recommends, so for now, we are required to continue with mask wearing requirements.  As soon as those change, we will make the change at school.

June is going to be “everything senior” for our seniors.  Ms. Taft will be releasing information to seniors and their parents, but in looking at the “big picture”, you can expect social media posts, yard signs, and plenty of activities for our seniors during the month of June.  It has been so great to have gotten to know them, and we want to send them off with style!

Lastly, please remember to vote on Tuesday.  The polls will be open from 12-8PM in the high school band room.  You can park in the high school circle or in designated spots on the side of the building.  We will have plenty of signs to help direct you.

I apologize for the length of this message, but I always want you to know what I know.  Thank you and enjoy the weekend!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope everyone has had a solid start to the week. I just wanted to bring you up to speed on a few topics. First, a reminder that the school budget vote is next Tuesday at the HS from noon until 8PM at the HS band room.  We will have more directions on how to get there and will make it as easy as possible.  Hope to see you there.  Also, Foodlink is this Thursday, beginning at 2:30PM at the HS.  Lastly, a change has been made to the school calendar and we will be closed, including students attending BOCES, on Friday, May 28th.

Thank you and have a great rest of the week!

Chris

Good Afternoon-

The school budget vote and Board election will be help on May 18th, 2021, from noon until 8PM in the band room at the high school (due to construction.) People are allowed to vote in person this year, and we will have everything set up to do so. The state is allowing absentee ballots for medical reasons, including COVID anxiety. Please find the absentee ballot attached. Ballots need to be postmarked by May 10th, or can be delivered in person until May 18th at 5PM.

This link (https://www.mwcsd.org/departments/business-office-personnel/school-budget-vote) will take you to a page that has complete information about the budget vote including what is on the ballot, the the digital form of the application for absentee ballot, voter qualifications, and the vote time and location.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us at 585-554-4848 x 1805.

Thank you.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

https://msg.schoolmessenger.com/m/?s=9A3Kw2atgog&mal=d0535db784f5afd20497f714c6fa26e3025e9e98e29b7ede6ce4876690b353d6

Good Afternoon-

I hope everyone is doing well.  This is an end of the week update. Thank you to all who came out for a rainy Foodlink.  We do have Foodlink again next Thursday, beginning at 2PM.  Beginning Monday, our high school students will be returning five days per week, giving us a full house UPK-12 for the rest of the school year.  We are excited to have everyone back for the home stretch. Be on the lookout in the coming weeks for summer programming.  We will be using federal dollars to provide more summer options at each level, and we will also be able to provide some transportation. Your building principal will reach out in the coming weeks.

Our high school ranked 339 out of 1208 high schools in the US News and World Reports best high schools listing.  I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish. We continue to be the little district that could, beating out other schools with many more resources. We will continue to get better each year.

Next week, we will send a separate message about absentee ballots for the May 18th school budget vote and election.  We are returning to in person voting, but people will be able to vote by absentee if they have COVID concerns about coming in person to vote. Be on the look out for that message next week.

Lastly, and if there is nothing unforeseen in the coming weeks, the last day for students in grades UPK-8 is June 22nd, and the last day for students in grades 9-12 is June 24th. Building principals will reach out with more calendar information and any changes as we get closer to June. 

Thank you for all you do and for your continued support.  Have a great weekend!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

I just have a few updates to share with you. First, tomorrow is our employee appreciation day. I am very appreciative of all the work they do and continue to do, and I would ask you to help me thank them if you run into any employees in your travels. Second, we had two unrelated positive COVID cases. One is a high school student, requiring two additional quarantines, and one is an employee that did not require additional quarantine. Last, tomorrow is Foodlink, beginning at 2:00PM, hope to see you there. Thanks and have a great rest of the week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

We had a wonderful week welcoming our 3-8 students back to school five days a week.  We had a couple of small hiccups here and there, but overall, it was great to see more smiling faces!

Speaking of having the students back, we met with the Department of Health and the Ontario county administrator today to further our conversation about using the weighted seven day rolling average of COVID cases for Yates and Ontario counties.  After running through the math again with them, and using the new seven day rolling averages for Ontario and Yates counties, they APPROVED our formula, allowing us to welcome all students in grades 9-12 back to school five days per week beginning the week of May 3^rd.  For your reference, the weighted (Yates and Ontario counties) seven day rolling average for Marcus Whitman is 49.  Anything below 100 puts us in the “go zone.” To their knowledge, we are the first school in NYS to be granted this type of permission, which we will not take lightly.

I am REALLY excited to have a full house to finish the school year for a variety of reasons.  First is student mental health, second is academic gap closing, and third is for our seniors, who can have somewhat of a normal conclusion to their academic careers.

As with the other buildings, fully remote students will have a choice of returning to school or remaining virtual through the end of the school year.

Ms. Taft will be meeting with high school employees with more details next week, and she will also be giving more detailed information to 9-12 students and their parents.  We will submit our updated reopening plan to the health department by the end of next week, and will be fielding questions along the way.  I thank everyone who has helped us to get to this point and to everyone who will be working in the coming weeks to help us make this final transition as smooth as possible.

We do have Foodlink next Thursday, beginning at 2:00PM, and I hope to see you there!

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

I hope that everyone had a good weekend.  I wanted to provide some updates as we head into this week.  We are very excited to have all of our students back in grades 3-8 beginning Monday (UPK-2 have all been back for months.) By Thursday, we will have a full house at those grade levels.  We know that this excitement is also causing change, so we are working with our counselors to make sure that everyone's needs are met should students or employees find any anxiety during this adjustment period.

We are treating the next week as if it is the first week of school for our 3-8 students.  Many students have not seen each other in person for over a year, and we are certain that they will want to catch up, get adjusted to being together, and re-learn some routines.  Our employees will be the same way.

We are continuing to fight the battle to be able to bring students in grades 9-12 back every day.  We hope to have some direction regarding that this week. At this point, ANY direction and guidance would be helpful.

COVID still exists, and we can expect that there will still be cases to report as we move forward to the end of the school year (there are ten weeks left beginning tomorrow.) We are confident and hopeful that any cases will not cause building closures, or shifts back to remote learning, but if that were to happen, we would send a phone call in addition to these emails to give you as parents as much notice as possible to plan.

We did have three cases to report from the weekend, two from Gorham and one from Valley, that had very limited quarantines associated with them.

Spring sports starts tomorrow, and we have been working with youth groups to allow the use of our outdoor facilities for their activities; some return to normal.

Lastly, we DO have Foodlink this Thursday beginning at 2:45PM.  Hope to see you there.

Thanks and have a great week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Happy Friday evening. We just got word that there will be a vaccine clinic for 16 and 17 year olds (parents must accompany) on the 20th at the Ontario County transportation center. The message is pasted below. If you are interested, get registered ASAP as this email will go out to other schools in the area as well. If you have a student-athlete, they will NOT have any consequences for missing practice to attend this clinic. Thanks and spread the word! 

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

We conducted a 1^st dose Pfizer clinic today for Hobart/William Smith students before they return home later in May.  We have approximately 240 doses that were unused and we would like to target our high schoolers 16/17 years old to use up this vaccine since we don’t receive regular allocations of Pfizer.  So the link below is for your students.  If you could help by distributing the link to your parents.  PARENTS WILL BE REQUIRED TO ACCOMPANY THEIR CHILDREN TO PROVIDE CONSENT TO RECEIVE THE VACCINE and some kind of photo ID will be necessary.  The clinic will run from 430pm to 7pm on April 20 at the County Transportation Center .  Let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks and have a nice weekend!

https://apps2.health.ny.gov/doh2/applinks/cdmspr/2/counties?DateID=C01D995E371F124AE0530A6C7C161F91

Good Evening-

I wanted to share a link to a short video we put together to discuss returning all to school in grades UPK-8.  The CDC link that is used in the presentation can be found here... https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fcases-updates%2Fcases-in-us.html#county-view .  Here is the link to the presentation… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VblvHNyauls&t=172s .

Thank you!

Chris

Good Evening-

I hope you had a great weekend.  As I am sure you have heard, the NYS Department of Health provided guidance on how to reopen schools with closer than six feet of physical distance.  We have been working on how to accommodate these regulations for some time as you know, and now it is time to take action.

The way the regulations read (I will provide them via email to you tomorrow in case you are interested in reading all of them), we have to submit a plan to the state that has been reviewed by the local department of health.  Also, a lot of what we do comes down to the “risk tolerance” of the community and employees, which we are supposed to ascertain through a “Hearing.”.  Consider this email the opening of the “Hearing” window.  We will take feedback through Wednesday.

To give you the basics of our plan, right now, the middle and high school are unable to return to school closer than six feet, because area infection rates are too high.  In all of NYS, Hamilton and Yates counties are the only two that have infection rates low enough (the middle and high school are in Ontario county) to return middle and high school students to school five days per week, That being said, students in ANY music activity (curricular or extra-curricular) and physical education, can now participate at six feet of physical distance, instead of twelve, effective immediately.  

Until area infection rates decline, only Valley and Gorham will be allowed to return students to less than six feet of physical distance.  Valley students are already at school for five days per week. Gorham will begin to return students to five days per week beginning the week of April 19^th.

Students at Gorham will eat lunch six feet apart, but will be in classes at three feet of physical distance.  

If children are riding the bus, we will make every attempt to physically distance them, but in order for many students to ride the bus, it will be necessary to have students two to a seat. They will be masked, and we have NOT had a student transmission of COVID since this all began, but I wanted to make sure you aware of this, in case you wanted to drive your children to school.

We will have adequate cleaning of the Gorham building when all students return, and will also have adequate cleaning of the middle and high school when all students return.

That’s about it.  We are excited to take this next step, and Gorham parents will be hearing from their principal this week with more arrangements.

Thanks, and if you have any other questions, please let me know.  As soon as it looks like the middle and high school students can return five days a week, I will let you know, and will finish plans for that.

In totally unrelated news, there is NO Foodlink this week, but it will return next week.

Thanks and see you soon.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope everyone had a great week.  Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Foodlink for us, and it was fitting that we now have a very healthy number of students helping, along with adults who have been volunteering all this time.  In one year, we have served over 45,000 meals to families via Foodlink alone.  Add that to the 75,000 meals we served through the grab and go programs, and that makes me one very proud superintendent!  We will be receiving more distribution dates for May and June, and will filter in more student helpers so they can participate in a real life learning experience.

Earlier this week, we learned that due to the efforts of our high school science department and Dan Blankenberg, we will be the recipients of a $15,000 grant to build a “sugar shack” right on campus.  Another great opportunity for learning!

You have probably been hearing a lot about “how much money is being given to schools” in the state budget.  Don’t believe the hype!  The majority of the “extra” monies are going to be in the form of grants that will help to pay for COVID related costs as well as after school and summer programming to close academic gaps.  As such, I have recommended to the Board of Education that we present the budget to the voters as we originally created it.  This will help us to be fiscally responsible for the coming years.  In my experience, schools that will use the money to add staffing or lower taxes will find themselves at a fiscal cliff quickly, and will have to make very difficult decisions to right their ships.  We won't put ourselves in that position.

This week was a pretty active in the land of COVID, as you know.  The Department of Health decided to “audit” (for lack of a better term), their quarantine work from the week.  They kept the Valley quarantines “as is”, but for Gorham and the middle school, they changed their “quarantine masking parameters” from 20/30 minutes of masked exposure to a COVID positive person at 6 feet of distance, to 60 minutes.  This caused two employees to be able to come off the quarantine list, as well as 23 students. 

I do want to add that we had another positive middle school case yesterday, which resulted in four additional quarantines (all students.)

We are going to be looking at ways to introduce outside groups to our outdoor fields in the near future. That, along with spring sports and an upcoming musical, will help us to get a little feeling of “normal.” It will be well received.

As of right now, we have not heard any news about being able to return to school at three feet of distance.  I would expect some type of news and direction between later today and the end of next week…hopefully.

Thank you for all of your support and for all you do to keep our school, community, and students moving forward during this very challenging time.

Enjoy the weekend.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

Unfortunately, we experienced a COVID outbreak in several buildings that has resulted in a lot of student quarantines.  First. I would like to publicly thank our nurses Mrs. Lightfoot, Mrs. Johnson, and Mrs. Rohring, as well as administrators Dr. Cazer, Mr. Pasho, and Dr. Cole, many of whom worked until after 8PM contact tracing cases and communicating with various Departments of Public Health.

At Valley Elementary, we had one positive student case which resulted in the quarantine of fourteen students and one employee.

At Gorham Intermediate, we had two COVID positive students and one COVID positive employee (not related to each other) which resulted in fifty students being quarantined.

At the middle school, we had one COVID positive employee, which resulted in the quarantine of two employees and two students.

For the sake of always being transparent, I wanted to provide the answers to two questions that I received today as news of these cases entered the community.

First, we DO NOT and WILL NOT make getting the vaccination mandatory; it is employee (and student/parent) choice. We also have no knowledge that New York State will make the COVID vaccination mandatory.

Second, there would have been several more employees quarantined, but they had the vaccine, which allows them to return to work tomorrow (each situation is taken on a case by case scenario.)

Schools in New York State were warned about a rise in cases after Easter and spring break, so these cases appear to be on track with what was expected.  Nonetheless, we hope that today was the end of the rise in cases for us.

Thank you for reading the for your continued support.  As a reminder, Foodlink is tomorrow beginning at 2:45PM.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

I hope you are well, and that everyone had a good first day back from break.  If you were away, you didn't miss much.  A NYS budget isn't approved as of yet, and there has been no additional guidance or permission to return to school at three feet of physical distancing.  On the positive side, the buildings got a deep clean, workers got a lot done on the capital project, and we shored up plans for when we are given permission to return to school with less physical distancing.

Each Monday at 9AM, I have a conference call with the Ontario County Public Health Department.  During the call today, we learned a few more things about vaccines and availability, as well as some insight into a rise in COVID cases.  Beginning very soon, and we will post the links on our social media platforms, the county will have clinics for those 16 and older.  They will have doses of EACH of the vaccines (Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson), and the clinics will be open to anyone.

The Pfizer vaccine has been tested for children ages 12-15, and it has proved to be effective, however, at this time, that vaccine has NOT been released for that age group.  Once it is, Ontario county will have clinics for children ages 12-15.

In terms of getting schools more "open", there has been a steady rise in cases over the past few days.  Cases in the high teens on Friday, low twenties on Saturday, and thirty yesterday.  Not great news in terms of getting permission to open at three feet of physical distance from my view.  Most of the cases are younger people, and they expect the numbers to rise over the next two weeks due to people going away for break.  We shall see.  I am hammering the state health department in some way, shape, or form every work day to get  all of our students back to school.

I had mentioned a few weeks ago that the state did NOT get the waiver (yet), regarding 3-8 testing and four federally associated Regents exams.  We want you to know that IF we are to give the assessments and exams, you will hear much more from your associated principal, but we are committed to NOT giving the 3-8 assessments at the same time we are transitioning to three feet of physical distance.  The state gave us flexibility to offer the 3-8 assessments beginning April 19th, but with a very flexible end date.  If we are fortunate to transition back to full school in April, we will schedule the 3-8 assessments around the move.  The four Regents exams we need to offer will still be help in June.

I appreciate everyone who has been coming to Foodlink.  Our numbers of people served continues to climb, which has made the amount of food we are receiving climb.  We have Foodlink again this Thursday, beginning at 2:45PM, and I hope to see you there.

As the weather gets nicer, we DO encourage our teachers to take their classes outside for instruction whenever possible.  Being outdoors is good for all!

Thanks and have a great rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Well, we made it. Spring break will be what each of us and our children make of it. For some, it will mean travel to see people they have not seen in person for a long time. For others it will mean the same old, same old. For me, it will be a mix. Whatever it is for you, be safe, take a little time to pause, and try to enjoy something different.

I will probably be quiet on social media, but will be here, and I hope to see you at Foodlink on April 1. I will send out a time early next week. Due to the break, we may be able to get started a little earlier. I will let you know.

We will be using the break to work on our reopening plans, health clinic, and selection of an ELA curriculum. I will give you updates on all three topics after break.

Thanks, be safe, and #PR1DEinthePaw-

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope you are having a great week.  I wanted to provide you with a few updates.  First, a student in the high school tested positive for COVID. There are no quarantines related to the case.  Second, Foodlink is this Thursday from 2:45PM until it is gone. Hope to see you there.  We will also have Foodlink during spring break on Thursday, April 1st.  Last, we have no new news from the state health department regarding return to school at three feet, and will update you as soon as we do.  We are learning that acceptable transportation and food service options can involve "podding" students, or giving them assigned seats at lunch tables and on the bus.  If a child in the "pod" (lunch table or bus seat) gets sick, just the people in the pod would be quarantined.  We are working as hard as we can in the background to be ready for when we are given permission to return, and are incorporating those food service and busing methods into that plan.  Again, I will keep you posted.

Thank you and have a great rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope everyone is ready for some warmer weather next week!  

By now you might have heard that the CDC published guidance to allow schools around the nation to open at three feet of physical distance instead of six, as long as masks are worn and as long as the infection rates remain low. Please note that as of 2:30PM today, Ontario county is noted as being in a state of "substantial spread", and it is unknown at this time what impact that will or won't have on a reopening timeline.

That being said, the Ontario County DOH is going to support us in following the CDC guidelines, which is great, but questions remain.  Those questions are in the areas of food service, transportation, and cleaning.  I asked Chris DeBolt, the Ontario County Administrator, to push those questions to the state “Control Room” for answers for all Ontario county school districts. He has done so, and we are awaiting a response.

I expect more complete guidance over the weekend, or early next week.

Aside from operational changes we need to make, we also have to think about the mental health of our students and our employees as we bring more students back.  I will be meeting with Dr. Cole, who helps to oversee our counselors, so we can have a solid plan for that moving forward.

As I have mentioned several times, some buildings may be able to ramp up sooner than others.  If all goes well, I would expect to be fully populated by the week of April 12^th or 19^th . We will be able to define that in a better way once we get the additional guidance we are seeking, and once we know if the county being deemed a "substantial spread" county will have any impact on us.

There is new confusion as to which agency can officially allow us to reopen.  Around the state, we have all believed that the decision making power lies with the New York State Health Department, but a new piece released today by the NYSDOH indicates that the authority is with the local departments of health.  This is new news to everyone' including the local departments of health, and the local departments of health wish for more guidance on that.  At the end of the day, we will create a plan that is safe, easy to understand, and well communicated, just as we have always done.

Thank you and I will keep you posted.

Have a great weekend.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope you are well. As promised, here is a link to a short video update about the reopening of school at three feet of physical distance, 3-8 and Regents exam update, 2021-2022 budget update, and the road to selecting a new English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTLKEV0XcFI.  Attached is a Massachusetts COVID school study that I referenced in the video and that is being used currently by the CDC and the NYSDOH to make their school opening decisions. 3 feet study from Mass.pdf  Also, here is a link to the most current budget presentation from our website that I also referenced in the video...https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b6w9Btsmp6QtEdqpev4OsgRzxeX8j8ED/view   

Thank you again for your support, and I can't believe we are only 100 calendar days away from graduation!

Take care-

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

We had a very successful conference day today to help us be ready for the remainder of the school year.  Next week, I will provide a video update about where we are in relation to getting students back five days per week at three feet of distance.

Today we were informed that a 4th grade student at Gorham tested positive for COVID. The student began symptoms long enough ago that we did not need to quarantine anyone else.

Thank you, and enjoy the weekend!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I wanted to bring you up to speed on two items of interest.  The first has to do with our reopening plans, should we be given permission to move from six, to three feet of physical distance.  In the last video, I mentioned that it would take Gorham about 4 weeks, the high school about 3 weeks, valley about 2 weeks, and the middle school about 2 weeks to be ready to open.  I wanted to be clear that those estimated times were based on beginning our planning on the date of the video.  Along with our daily work, we have been planning for a possible return, so if we are given permission, we would be able to open much sooner than those estimates.  I will provide another video update next week.  Thank you for your continued patience.

New York State applied for a waiver so students would not need to take 3-8 tests this year, or regents exams.  That waiver was denied by the federal government in January, which means that those assessments and exams (algebra I, ELA, living environment and earth science) are still on the books as of right now.

The New York State Education Department sent all of the schools in NYS a survey yesterday that our director of curriculum and I completed yesterday.  They are compiling all of the assessments and tests that we are currently giving with the intent of appealing the waiver denial.  I will keep you posted on that.

It has been one year since we thought we were only going to be closed for two weeks due to a weird virus that was just making the national news.  We have all been through an awful lot; both good and bad.  As I reflected today, I can say that in the past year, I have gotten to know myself better and have also gotten to know many of you and the students better than I would have; and I consider those to be very positive things.  We are almost to the end of this, and there will be a time when we will want to think about what the next "new normal" will look like.  We will certainly need all of our voices to help decide those things.

Thank you and have a great rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

I hope you have been able to catch a little bit of the sun these past couple of days.  I wanted to get you caught up on a few items as we head into the back end of the week.  First, a student at Gorham Intermediate tested positive for COVID.  This has led to the quarantining of 2 employees, and 11 students.

In my last message, I mentioned sending you a recorded presentation about what has to happen on our end should we be given permission to bring students back to school five days a week at a 3 foot physical distance.  The link to that recording is here...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjthhsbXjx8&feature=youtu.be. If you have questions after watching the recording, please do not hesitate to reach out.

In the Fall, we sent you a ThoughtExchange survey about how things were going.  While the response was overwhelmingly positive, we are in a constant state of wanting to get better.  One of the "thoughts" from the survey that was in the improvement needed area concerns communications in our special education department and program.  We had hoped to dig deeper into this during the late Fall and winter, but COVID has slowed us down a bit.  Andrea Smith, our director of student support services created a new ThoughtExchange that should only be completed by parents and caregivers of students with disabilities within our school district.  The link for that survey is here...https://my.thoughtexchange.com/797396498 , and Mrs. Smith will be sending this link via email to parents who she has email addresses for as well.  Thank you for taking the time to help us improve.

We do have Foodlink tomorrow from 2:45PM until it is gone at the high school, district office side.  If is supposed to be quite cold and windy, so please come up and keep us company.  I hope to see you there.

Thanks and have a great rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope that everyone had a great weekend.  This will be a longer message that normal, but I wanted to keep you in the loop on several things.  First, congratulations are in order for our boys and girls bowling teams.  The boys won their fourth Section V Championship in a row on Friday, and the girls won their third in a row on Saturday.  We are very proud of them!  The roster for the boys included Don and Eli Mangiarelli, Tim Phillips, Austin King, Nick Lloyd, and Alex Gayhart. The roster for the girls included Zoelle Payne, Destiny Rast, Mikayla Baker, Kendall Davis, Chase Bond, Emily Button, Leah Aaron, and Kennedy Smith. Both teams were coached my Matt Silco and Brian Law. 

On Saturday, Carl Parsons and his family were joined by our swim coaches, as well as Mr. Lahue and myself.  Carl was recognized for being the Section V winner of both the 200 IM and the 100 M breast stroke.  He broke the school record for the breast stroke that has been in place since 1988.  Tradition in swimming is to have the record breaker please his/her name on the record board, and it was fun to watch Carl do exactly that. Congratulations!

In terms of getting all of our students to school five days a week, the next two weeks may be a little confusing, depending on which news you watch.  President Biden will be calling for all schools to re-open by May, and in New York State, we are waiting for direction to see if we can bring all students back five days per week by utilizing three feet of physical distancing, instead of six.

What will be confusing is the cross fire between the federal re-opening of schools initiative, versus getting all students back five days per week.  When you watch the news, especially the national news, it may appear that we are all going back to last March.  We have to remember that there are thousands of schools around the country (and some in New York State) that have not had students in school since last March.  The news, especially the national news, will be speaking about social distancing, ventilation, and mask wearing like they are new things in school.  They will appear new, to schools that have not been open at all.  Just keep reminding yourself that we have already been through all of that, and are just waiting for guidance to go to three feet of physical distance.

Later this week, I will put out a presentation about what it will take for us to get all of our students back, by building and department.  You will be able to ask questions, and we will answer them as best we can with the information we have today.

We are working on a possible grant funded partnership with Mosaic Health to provide a full service behavioral, dental, and health clinic right at school.  This would be open to all of our students and employees, as well as the students and employees in the BOCES FLSS program, which occupies space at the back of the middle/high school campus.  The clinic will be staffed with doctors and nurses, and will be able, by appointment or walk-in, to help students with anything they would go to their doctor for.  The clinic, because it is grant funded, would also be able to take students with, or without insurance, and will have during school and after school hours.

One of our challenges is to find the space required for the clinic, and we need to jump through many grant hoops; the first of which is to meet a March 22 deadline to express interest in the grant.  If all were to go well, and if everything works out, we would be looking to open the facility by February 2022.  

Our next Foodlink distribution is this Thursday, from 2:45PM until the food is gone.  The next distributions are March 11, and 25, as well as April 1, 8, 22, and 29.  We hope to see you there!

Thank you, and have a great week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Thank you for taking the time to participate in the return to school survey.  We had very good participation, and the average of the overall results between the employees and our parents was that 78.8% of those who responded were in favor of returning to school with three feet of physical distancing.

This information was collected to be sure that our employees and the community were in favor of carrying that message forward to our elected officials.  It is important to note and remind everyone that these positive results do NOT mean that we will be making the decision to make the change, but that we will now carry the message to the people who make the decisions regarding return to school. We will not be violating any law or Executive Order of the state.

We learned this morning that later today, the Ontario County Department of Health will be sending out a press release indicating that they will NOT be the decision makers with regard to return to school; that decision will have to come from the governor's office and the New York State Department of Health.

For now, we will advocate on behalf of the District and its residents.  If and when a change is allowed by the state, we will put a process in motion and make it happen.

In studying what it would take to bring all of the students back, when and if we are given permission, there will be different timelines for our buildings based on space, and there may need to be some teacher and scheduling changes.  I will have a town hall to make you aware, by building and department, of what the "pain points" and timelines are, by building, so you know absolutely everything that I know.

Thank you for reading and for your help in reaffirming our direction.

Take care-

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Pasted below is a very brief survey to gage interest in having students return to school five days per week, if we are given permission to decrease social distancing from six feet to three feet insomuch as possible in every area of a child's day.  We would continue with mask wearing and hand-washing. Fully remote students who have medical notes to be fully remote would likely stay that way through the end of the school year.

School District's in Onondaga county have been given permission to do this by their County Executive.  We would need permission from our local or state department of health, or the county administrators to make the change.  Three schools in the Rochester area have decided on their own to switch from six feet to three feet, but we are not willing to put the school district into possible legal jeopardy by changing our practices without permission from an authority above us.

You feedback really helps us, because in order to bring students back every day, we may need to change bus routes, master schedules, classroom locations, etc... and we need time to do that.  If you are really not interested in bringing students back every day, we will not start this planning, nor will be reach out to elected officials, etc... to have a change made.  Please complete the survey by Wednesday so we have enough time to turn it around and communicate back to you with the plan.

Thanks!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Survey --> https://forms.gle/igqRX36tKYuDCKZ57

Good Evening-

I hope that you and your kids got a chance to get a little breather last week.  School was busy with sports, fine arts, and construction last week, but I have to tell you that it was great to see some fans in the stands.

With the exception of a few employees who could not get the vaccine last week due to the weather, any employee who wanted a vaccination has gotten one.  At the same time, there has been new and positive information released about the effectiveness of the vaccine, very low spread of COVID in schools, and student-athletes being allowed to compete.  The time has come to really lobby to get students back to school five days a week in grades UPK-12.  Lawmakers appear to be listening right now, and I am in absolute favor, for a variety of reasons, of getting students back to school every day.

I am only one voice however, and we are in this together.  Tomorrow, you will be emailed a very brief survey to see if you would support the district becoming very vocal to anyone who will listen about getting students back to school.  We would be asking for three feet of social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing, and for students to return after spring break.  If the survey results show great interest, I will do everything in my power to convince those in power to make it happen.  No promises, but it won't hurt to try.  If the survey results do not show interest, we will carry on the way we have been. Thank you in advance for taking a moment to complete the survey when you receive it.

Thursday is our next Foodlink distribution from 2:45PM until it is gone (usually by 4).  I hope to see you there.

Thank you and have a great week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

I hope that everyone had a great weekend. We had two positive students cases over the weekend; one at the HS and one at Gorham.  Neither has been in school for a while, so there is no additional quarantining.  

This is a reminder that we have Foodlink this Thursday from 2:45PM until it is gone, which recently, has been by approximately 4PM.  There will be meat in this shipment.

Nearly all of our employees have had the first dose of the COVID vaccine, and are scheduled to receive their second doses in the next three weeks.  The second dose has been known to cause fairly significant side effects that arrive 8-12 hours after the second dose is given, and last less than 48 hours.  We do not know what impact this will have on staffing, if any, as this is our first global pandemic, but if we are missing too many staff in any one building on any given day, we may need to pivot to virtual instruction for a day.  Unfortunately, because most employees are getting their doses after school hours, those effects won't arrive until the middle of the night, so you may receive very short notice about having to go virtual. I apologize in advance for that.  As you know, we always plan for the worst and hope for the best, but I wanted you to know what the situation might be over the next few weeks. The same thing will happen with our community members, once vaccines are opened to everyone.

We also did find a way to allow parents at our athletic events, beginning with our first games this week.  Mr. Lahue will have more information out about that in the next day or two.

Thank you for listening, hope to see you at Foodlink, and have a great rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

This is an end of the week update.  First, we had no new covid cases this week, which is cause for celebration.  We also were able to begin high-risk athletics, and are making plans to allow parents to attend by the third week of the season.  We were also able to get the majority of our employees their first COVID vaccine dose this week, thanks to Thompson Hospital, and Ontario County.  We also learned that the state is considering relaxing some fo the guidelines for fine arts and extracurricular activities, which will help us to get closer to bringing back more students every day.

We have Foodlink again next week, and we have been told that we will definitely have meat with the shipment.  I will put out a call to remind you, early next week. Thank you for your support, and for all you are doing at home.

Have a great weekend!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope everyone had a great week, and thanks to those who came up for Foodlink yesterday.  Even though the "Real Feel" was -5, we kept warm by keeping busy!

I apologize for the long email, but in order to keep you in the loop, some of my messages are a little longer than others.

We have been meeting the past few days about how we will be handling high-risk athletics as the first of three seasons begins on Monday (Winter 2/1-3/14 // “Fall 2” 3/1 (hopefully) – 5/1 // Spring 4/19 - ? (depends if Regents Exams are given)).

Mr. Blankenberg, Ms. Taft, Mr. Lahue, and I met today at length to go over safety protocols, and we also brought in guidance from the outside (different athletic Sections, Departments of Health, BOCES, NYSED, and Governor’s office), and feel comfortable with our initial plans.  Those plans begin with making sure that our student-athletes, coaches, and officials are able to practice and perform in a safe environment.  Unfortunately, and for most schools in the area, that will mean no fans in attendance.  We will be starting the season with no fans and evaluating from there. If we feel comfortable that some fans can be included, we will be allowed to have a maximum of two fans per student-athlete.  We will relay more of that information as we get into the season. Due to student interest, our winter sports will include boys and girls basketball (girls will not have a JV team), cheer, wrestling (We received guidance that makes me more comfortable offering it.  We have 3 interested students at this time, so we will be evaluating over the next week to make sure it will still operate), and hockey (shared with Geneva).

Mr. Lahue, our Athletic Director, and I, will hold a virtual town hall in the very near future as well, to present all of this.

I had a large meeting today, full of stakeholders from around the state.  While there is an emphasis on athletics from the state right now, we will NOT let them off the hook for fine arts and extra-curricular activities.  Regulations for both need to be reconsidered and changed, in my opinion, and in the opinion of my colleagues across the state.  The 6’ social distance regulation in classrooms and hallways also needs to be reconsidered to be 3’, as Massachusetts and Connecticut and other states have changed to, with little to no change in COVID cases.

The largest lobbying group I have available is the New York State Council of School Superintendents (NYSCOSS), and we are pounding on people to not stop with athletics, and to consider fine arts, regular school, and extra-curricular activities.  My suggestion would be to use any organization you are affiliated with to lobby for reconsideration and change.  The people who need to hear you are the Governor and his employees.  This is no knock on the Governor, all leaders make decisions that are popular and unpopular; this is how the system to make change works in our Democracy, in addition to elections.  I have also been lobbying to our local elected officials, and our Board of Education has signed those letters as well.  We are pushing. It is going to take a steady pulse from ALL of us to make change.

The budget is coming together.  Usually the first thing I am asked, is what is the tax levy going to be?  We have committed to not exceeding the tax cap, which has been calculated at 2.35% for Marcus Whitman, so that is the maximum tax levy we would propose.  

The second thing I am asked is what are the major changes in the budget? Really, we will be looking to maintain as many programs as we can.  I like the direction we are headed.  We are fiscally strong, have good plans in place and are increasing student achievement, and our students have access to many extra-curricular options.  We would like to add a formal strategic plan to continue to help us sculpt our spending. We are in a very good place overall.

What we actually receive from the federal and state governments is what will determine how many reductions we may have to make.  We just do not know enough yet to put a solid budget gap out there.  If someone asked me in passing what my educated guess of a budget gap (difference between what we need to spend versus what money we will raise from state/federal aid and taxes) is as of today, I would say about $600,000.  Not the worst, but enough to continue to make us consider every dollar we spend, as we ALWAYS should.  Through our actions, we have been blessed with the trust of the community, and we will keep that trust by continuing to be transparent, and openly communicating.  This is my 23^rd budget cycle, and I feel confident that we can get a budget done that will meet the needs of the district and our tax payers.

Beyond next year?  That is a tougher question. It depends if the state can recover from the pandemic financially, and if the federal government will continue to help financially.  A topic for another time.

Thank you for your continued support.  When I watch the news or attend meetings, I just feel that by the power  and dedication of our employees, students, and community, we are doing more than “swimming”; we are creating a wake and current. Thank you, and enjoy the weekend.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

By now I am sure you have heard that high school sports, labeled as "high-risk" sports, can begin practicing on February 1st.   For Marcus Whitman, those sports include sideline and competitive cheer, basketball, hockey (combined team with Geneva), football, and wrestling.  At the same time, the Governor has lifted micro-cluster restrictions that have been in place in areas that were designated as "yellow" and "orange" zones.

At this time, we have given the green light to all sports, with the exception of wrestling; which we have given a yellow light to for the time being.  Many other states have been operating high school athletics since the beginning of the school year, and it is difficult to find any articles or research that suggests that high school sports, with the exception of wrestling, contribute to the transfer of COVID. Mr. Lahue, our Athletic Director will have more information out about signing up for sports.

The Centers for Disease Control does not see any way that wrestling can be conducted safely, under their guidelines.  Both the Monroe and Ontario county departments of health have asked schools to strongly review wrestling before attempting to start it.  I have included two articles for your reference at the bottom of this message concerning wrestling.

The bottom line is that I am not convinced that wrestling is safe for our students, coaches, and adults.  I gave a tentative "yes" to the wrestling season, to give the departments of health and other governing bodies a chance to connect and make any recommendations that would convince me that we can have a safe wrestling season.  The student-athletes in wrestling will be notified of our hesitance. If the season is not able to happen for Marcus Whitman, they will be notified as well.

At the same time, I feel that our fine arts programs, ALL of them, should be reviewed and reconsidered, so that more students can participate.  Right now, our musicians need to be twelve feet apart to sing, but our athletes can compete in much closer quarters.  That is not fair, for starters, and just doesn't make sense to me as I rad the regulations over and over again.  I am going to keep the pressure on for change.

Getting more students back into school is also a priority of ours, and we will be using the athletic guidance to lobby for some relief in those regulations with the hopes of getting more students to school five days per week.

This may seem like a waste of time for me to write this message to you, but transparency and making sure everyone has the facts are very important, and I wanted you to know what I know related to the upcoming athletics season.

Thank you for reading, and have a great rest of the day.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/cdc-school-virus-spread/2021/01/26/bf949222-5fe6-11eb-9061-07abcc1f9229_story.html

https://www.news4jax.com/news/florida/2021/01/27/florida-high-school-wrestling-tournament-cited-in-spread-of-covid-19-1-death/

Good Afternoon-

I wanted to let you know that two employees who were already on quarantine tested positive for COVID today.  Through contact tracing, we are quarantining 21 students, who will return on school next Tuesday.  

In the good news department, students will be returning to the middle school, high school, and FLSS BOCES on Monday.

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Last week, I promised a short video about how we are approaching the Inauguration tomorrow. The link can be found below.  Regardless of our individual political views, let us as Americans, all hope for a peaceful transition of power tomorrow and in the coming days.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b84fZnKlegjLJJw9vShO5VQAUHvW4_6I/view

Thank you.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Unfortunately, we will not be able to bring students back to the middle or high school for the remainder of the week.  We do not have enough custodians or building mechanics to make that happen any way we slice it.  Middle and high school students WILL return to in person classes on Monday, January 25th.  If there is a silver lining, it is that we are able to pool resources to keep Valley and Gorham open, and there will be some extra-curricular, find arts, and athletic opportunities that will still be able to operate in the afternoons and evenings this week. Ms. Taft and Dr. Cole will relay those to you later today.

If your middle or high schooler needs meals for Wednesday through Friday and you don't already receive them, please email Carla Woolston at cwoolston@mwcsd.org.

Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.  I am sorry that we are in this position; there are just too many things out of my control.

Thank you.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I regret to inform you that our middle and high school will be switching to full remote learning for at least tomorrow, Tuesday, January 19th, due to a custodial/building mechanic shortage caused by a positive employee, and the resulting quarantines.  Once we are able to further assess staffing, we will send out another note about the rest of the week for the middle and high school.  We have come a long way, and have done the best we can to not have COVID impact us, and I apologize if this places an additional bourdon on your family.  We are truly doing all that we can to remain open, and I take it very personally and seriously that we cannot.  Ms. Taft and Dr. Cole will be sending messages out later today regarding how will tomorrow will progress for middle and high school students. Mr. Lahue will be sending something out for student athletes.

Thank you.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope this finds you still celebrating the Bills victory (if you are a Bills fan).  I wanted to bring you up to speed on a couple of things.  First, we have two positive students to report since Friday, and two employees who need to be quarantined.  One student and one employee are at the middle school, and one student and one employee are at Gorham.  After a lot of tracing (thank you Dr. Cole, Mr. Pasho, and Mrs. Rohring), we need to quarantine 27 total students.  Six of those students will be quarantined until the 19^th, and the other 21 will be quarantined until the 19^th, unless a specific COVID test comes back negative, in which case, they will be able to return earlier (those parents will be notified when we know).  All of those parents have been contacted.

A BOCES FLTCC student from another district tested positive and that is going to cause 6 of our FLTCC students to be quarantined.  BOCES makes those calls, and I do not know if they are completed yet, or the length of time of the quarantine.

Both positive cases at Marcus Whitman were traced to contact outside of school.

Our school employees are eligible to sign up for the COVID vaccine, beginning tomorrow.  By NO fault of the area Departments of Health and clinics, the roll out of the vaccine for educators is going to be touch and go, and will probably feel inefficient and frustrating at times.  There are no scheduled school site vaccination programs (for employees; students need to be 18 and older to get the vaccine) on the horizon.  My hope is if we can get our employees vaccinated sooner than later, that we will be allowed to have more students at school on a daily basis. I will keep our employees (and you) posted.

Our next Foodlink distribution is this Thursday, from 3-5PM at the high school, district office side.  Foodlink was not able to provide meat at the last distribution, but we are hopeful that they will have meat for the upcoming distribution. Any food is good food in my book, but we have had meat in our distributions for a very long time, and it was unusual not to have it the last two times; and I know many you you rely on that.  I hope to see you there.

Lastly, we will be holding a virtual town hall on Wednesday at 4:30PM.  The topics will be the second half of the school year, COVID updates, anything else we know about vaccines, and other updates. This will be on our Youtube Channel, and you will be able to ask questions using the chat feature. You can always go back and watch if you are not able to make it.  

Thanks for your support and have a great week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

I wanted to let you know that since my last communication, we have had three new employee, and student COVID cases.  There is not a need to quarantine any additional people.  We knew about these cases since the end of break, but could not comment about them until they made the NYS daily COVID spreadsheet.

This is a reminder that our next Foodlink distribution is tomorrow from 3-5PM, at the high school, district office side.

Lastly, and please do NOT take this as a political statement of any kind, a quick look at the news shows us that something different is happening in Washington, DC.  When something different happens in our community, in America, or around the world, people talk about it, including children and young adults.

From my experience as a parent and as a school leader, giving your children a chance to talk is healthy, and gives them a chance to vent, express their feelings/concerns, and spurs more conversation. You may want to check in on them just to see how they feel, and if they want to start a conversation.

Thank you and have a great rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and holiday  Mine was good, but different.  It is the first Christmas Eve and day ever, that I have spent alone.  Well, Luna was with me, so I wasn’t totally alone, and she would probably be offended by me saying that, if she could read.  I zoomed with my family on Christmas Eve and we were “together” like we normally are, minus the actual being together part.  My mom and dad did great with Zoom (they are in their upper 70’s), and my aunt summed up her experience by saying, “I hate this Zoom thing.” At any rate, the family was together in spirit and on screen, and that was the best we could do this year.

The last time I communicated (December 22^nd), I still had a golf ball sized cyst giving me a really hard time at the base of my spine (had it removed later that day and am still recovering, but getting better every day), and we had four fewer COVID cases to report (we have had four new employee cases, one in each building, since the 22^nd; with no additional quarantining necessary).

We have learned that New York State has adopted the same quarantine language as the Centers for Disease Control.  This means that effective immediately, if someone is a direct contact of a COVID positive person, they will quarantine for 10 days (instead of 14), unless they too, develop symptoms.

Before the holiday, I was informally told that if all “went well”, educators would have access to the COVID vaccine at around the middle to end of January.  I haven’t heard anything different, but that doesn’t mean that the information is still accurate.  I will let you if and when I hear anything.

We have been working with Foodlink and hope to have 4-6 distribution dates between January and February.  As soon as we get the dates, I will get them out to you.

Before we totally trash 2020, I think we need to reflect on the positives.  We definitely learned a lot more about ourselves and each other through this pandemic, and we also learned about how strong and unique our community really is.  I know that from March 12 until now, I have become a better person in a lot of ways, and I am sure that many of you can say the same thing.

I am not Pollyanna. I expect January through March to be as challenging, if not more challenging than we have experienced thus far, but we have four things going for us; resiliency, experience, grit, and each other.  Add a little patience and grace into the mix, and that is a recipe to make it the rest of the way through this interesting time in history.  We can. We will.

Have a Happy New Year, and I will see you soon!

Peace.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good evening-

New York State is using a new spreadsheet system to let us know when we have positive COVID cases in our school.  The spreadsheet is sent to us at 3PM each day, and we match the NYS dashboard numbers with the spreadsheet we receive.  There will be times now when we know of a case, but cannot report it to you until we receive the official notification from the state.  

The notification today listed two positive staff members; one from Gorham, and one from the middle school, as well as one student from Gorham,  Through contact tracing, there will be no additional quarantining.

Our last day of classes is tomorrow, and the District Office will be closed on Wednesday, to give construction workers the opportunity to tie in heat and electric to the new addition.

We have all been through a lot so far this year, but through it all, we have worked together, and I sincerely appreciate that.  I celebrate Christmas, and for those of you who also do, Merry Christmas.  For those who don't, I wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

Thank you.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I wanted to take a moment to bring you up to speed on a few things.  First, we had one additional COVID positive employee.  The employee was the only one quarantined.

Second, the Governor held a press conference today where he outlined new criteria for Yellow, Orange, and Red zones.  As we suspected, schools will remain open, regardless of the zone we are in, with student and employee testing being required in each zone (20% for Yellow zone, 30% for Orange and Red zones).  In your email, you will find an updated permission slip for testing.  If you already submitted a permission slip the last time we sent them out (when we thought we were going to be in a Yellow zone), you need to do nothing. Thank you in advance for helping us out.  Somewhat surprisingly, we did not have our zone changed this week and are still clear.  Fingers crossed that it will stay that way.

Our next Foodlink distribution is this Thursday from 3PM until it is gone, at the HS, district office side.  Hope to see you there.

Thank you, and have a great rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of SchoolsCovid Permission2.pdf 

Good Afternoon-

I hope that everyone had a great week. If you didn’t have a chance to watch the Governor’s press conference today, there was good news and bad news. The good news is that he firmly believes, (and the data very much supports), that schools are the safest places to be, and that they should remain open, no matter what zone we are in.
 
The bad news is that the Fingerlakes area currently has the highest infection rate in the state, at 7.81%.  The Governor is going to change some of the criteria for entering a yellow, orange, or red zone on Monday, and is also going to announce new zones for areas.  My concern for the community is that we will be designated as an orange or red zone based on the data.  It shouldn’t impact us, in terms of being able to keep schools open, and we have trained plenty of people to conduct testing, should we need to do that, but I am afraid for community members and parents who own businesses, or work in fields/areas that will be closed due to a zone designation status.  Many people are already stretched thin and are hurting, and this will just add to it.  I will keep you posted as we learn more, but we as a school district are ready for any eventuality. We will continue to help you where and when we can. We are in this together.
 
In speaking to Yates and Ontario Departments of Health yesterday, I offered up myself, as well as any of our schools, to receive and be host sites to give the vaccination, should/when it becomes available.  They were unable to give us any sort of timetable for when a vaccine will be available in our community.

Until after break at the earliest, we will not be having any more adult larger group, in person trainings, meetings, or get togethers.  Our administrative cabinet and Board of Education are aware of this, and are planning accordingly.  On the Board of Education side of things, our Monday Board meeting will not have the public in attendance (it will be available on our YouTube channel), and we are postponing the ribbon cutting ceremony for the capital project (art/music wing, gym, and auditorium) that was scheduled for Monday evening.  I appreciate your patience and understanding, but we need to control what we can control if we want the best shot at keeping school open.

Knock on wood, we have not had a direct adult COVID case this week, and we had very few student cases. We are hoping to continue that trend into break.  Barring anything unknown, we will almost be back to full strength, employee and student wise, by the middle of next week.
 
Next Thursday is our next Foodlink distribution, from 3-5PM at the HS, DO side, hope to see you there.

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

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools
 

Good Evening-

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We spent the weekend contact tracing three employee COVID cases (one was not positive, but lives with someone who is). The result was having to quarantine 18 employees (6.5% of our workforce) from various buildings and departments. We also had to quarantine several students (their parents have already been contacted). We will be able to open our schools and supply transportation because the rest of our employees are going to cover when they can, and try to make everything happen.

We all need to be aware that we are getting closer to having to make the difficult decision to close buildings from time to time. Again, we are not there yet, and we hope not to get there, but I want to make sure that you are aware that the day could come if the number of positive cases, and especially quarantined people, continues to rise.

We are learning that the positive cases are not from anything at school, and we continue to keep our schools safe and clean. We are just in a spot right now where we are experiencing a higher volume of cases than we have been accustomed to. Our geographic area is as well. We will get through it if we continue to work together. Wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands, and avoiding gatherings outside of school are critically important right now.

Thank you for your continued support.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

After going over a month with no COVID cases, we played a little bit of catch up this week. Just to provide a summary, three students and one employee tested positive this week.  Through contact tracing and an abundance of caution by the department of health, this led to the quarantine of twelve employees and 43 students. We wish for our COVID positive students and employees to feel well, and for our quarantined students, staff, and parents to not go stir crazy until their return to work and school.

Our numbers seem high, because they came this week, but our positive rate is very, very low.  The CDC, Dr. Mendoza, and our local elected officials all feel that schools are the safest places to be, and are lobbying for schools to remain open even if we enter an orange or red zone someday.

Attached is an updated Yellow Zone presentation that reflects changes up to today. Here is the link to the updated YouTube video…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWIH50NfLk8&feature=youtu.be.

Thank you for returning those permission slips, they are coming it at a steady rate. We will be training 17 employees in addition to our nurses on December 1 to conduct COVID testing should we enter the yellow zone.

Wear masks, social distance, avoid large gatherings, and wash your hands.  We need to continue to work together to keep moving forward.

Thank you and have a good weekend.

Chris

Yellow Zones Final.pdf Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

I wanted to bring everyone up to speed on our COVID cases as of 10PM tonight, share the permission slip for COVID testing with you, and also provide a link to a video of me taking the same COVID test that our students and employees will be asked to take should we enter a "Yellow Zone". There will NOT be a phone call to accompany this email.

We continue to learn that the COVID cases we are experiencing did not come from school.  They are the remnants of gatherings that took place around Halloween. We are also learning that the county health departments are widening who they are quarantining, with the hopes of stopping the spread.

Today, we also learned of one additional COVID positive student at the high school.  The case is directly related to the case we made you aware of yesterday.  This case may cause a few more students to be quarantined, once contact tracing is completed.

The now three cases (one in second grade, and two at the high school) over the past twenty-four hours have led to the quarantining of thirty-seven students and seven employees. 

If anything changes, I will let you know.  We need to continue mask wearing, distancing, and washing our hands.  The Department of Health asked us to also stress the importance of not having large gatherings.

Attached is the permission slip we are using District wide for our students to be tested, should we enter the Yellow Zone.  If you had a chance to check out our virtual town hall from yesterday, there is a full explanation of Yellow Zones, how we will select people for testing, how they will be tested, as well as other pieces of the process (if you missed it, you can find it on our YouTube channel...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF57RFmgBLyxbxSNsWCCwUA.)  I sent the presentation to you last night as well.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I apologize in advance if you receive several permission slips.  We are trying to make sure that everyone receives one in the format they prefer.  Completed permission slips can be returned to the school your child(ren) attend. Please complete one slip per child. Thank you!

Lastly, here is the link to a video that was recorded today of me taking the rapid COVID test that our students and employees will be asked to take should we enter the Yellow Zone. I found the process to be non-invasive, and it actually took about three minutes for the result to appear (negative).  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e_uZBc7KFNqO2tXtV87gmsE_IlIZzzo9/view?usp=drivesdk.

We are trying our best to keep school open, and will continue to do so.  There may be some inconveniences here and there due to employee quarantines, but we will get through it; we always do. If you see any of our employees, please give them an extra "thank you". They, like you, are doing all they can to help get us through this.

Thank you in advance for reading this, and for your continued support.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of SchoolsParent Consent Form.pdf 

Good Evening-

As promised, there will be no phone call associated with this message.  Thanks to all who attended our virtual town hall.  You can watch the recording later tonight on our YouTube channel...

As of 6:15PM, all parents who have students who will need to quarantine have been contacted by a school official.  Those parents will also be contacted by a NYS contact tracer within the next 36 hours.  Parents were given direction on what they can do between now and the time the NYS contact tracer reaches them.

Attached are several documents that were used in the virtual town hall.  Tomorrow, you will begin to receive permission slips for testing, should we enter a yellow zone.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your child's principal, or me.

Have a good evening.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of SchoolsTesting Algorithm.pdf Yellow Zones Finalpdf2.pdf Cost of Covid Powerpointpdf.pdf 

Good Afternoon-

We learned today that two students, one in second grade, and one in eleventh grade, tested positive for COVID-19.  They were last in school on November 10th and 12th, respectively.  The attached letter provides more detail, and I am always available to answer any questions. I will provide another email update (no phone call unless we have a new positive case) tomorrow.

Today is our virtual town hall. It will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel.  The topics will be the cost of COVID, Yellow Zones, and we will spend time with our school nurses. You will be able to ask questions using the chat feature.  The link to our YouTube Channel can be found here...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF57RFmgBLyxbxSNsWCCwUA. 

Thank you and enjoy the rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools Parent Letter 2.pdf 

Good Evening-

Thank you to all who participated in our special day yesterday and either picked up Foodlink, the Thanksgiving dinner, or both.  Bringing the community together is something that we very much enjoy, and I would like to thank all of the volunteers who made it happen.

More and more areas are entering the yellow, orange, and red zones due to COVID.  We have been fortunate to stay out of those zones, but we need to plan for what happens if we do.  To that end, we will be holding a virtual community forum on Tuesday, November 17 at 4:30PM where we will discuss the yellow zone, testing of students, the cost of COVID to the District so far, and we will also hear from our school nurses.  This event will be live-streamed on our Youtube Channel and you will be able to ask questions.  If you miss the forum, you can always watch it later.

We all play important roles in keeping schools open.  Wearing our masks, distancing, washing our hands, and limiting gatherings are all things we can to together to help.  We are doing all that we can at school to stay open, and appreciate you helping us with that at home.

Thank you for your continued support, and enjoy the weekend!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

Our next Foodlink distribution and our hot Thanksgiving dinner grab and go are both on Thursday. Unfortunately, they will need to be held as two separate events because we cannot keep the Foodlink cold and the Thanksgiving dinner warm if we hold them at the same time.  My apologies if some of you have to make two trips to the high school, district office side.  Foodlink will be from 2:30-3:30PM, and the Thanksgiving grab and go begins at 5PM.  If you have an absolute hardship and cannot come to campus twice, please call Carla Woolston at 585-554-4848 x1802. I hope to see you at one or both events.  The next Foodlink distribution is on December 3rd, and the last is on December 17.

Wednesday is Veterans Day, and I wish to sincerely thank our Veterans, not because it is the politically correct thing to do, but because I truly understand what their service has meant for my freedom, and the freedom of everyone else in our country.

Thank you, and enjoy the rest of the week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope that everyone had a great weekend.  I wanted to bring you up to speed on a couple of topics that I hope you will find useful for planning purposes.

As I mentioned earlier in the school year, there is a PILOT program that New York State made available for this school year that allows schools to eliminate snow days and instead have virtual instruction days.  We are choosing to NOT participate in the PILOT, and we will have snow days this year. 

This pandemic is taking a toll in different ways on everyone in a variety of ways.  My educated guess is that for next year, snow days will not be an option, and we will be directed to have virtual days on snow days.  I hope I am wrong.

If we exceed our allotted four snow days, we WILL have virtual days, so we can maintain the 180 days of instruction that New York State requires.

Second, the governor changed travel guidelines.  There is no longer a list of “hot” states. Instead, ALL states that do not border New York State, are being treated as “hot” states.  If your child travels to another state for more than 24 hours, they must get a COVID test in that state three days before they return.  When they return, they must quarantine for three days.  On the fourth day, they must get another COVID test.  If the result is negative, they can return to school.  If they refuse to get tested, the 14 day mandatory quarantine is still in effect. 

If they travel out of state for less that 24 hours, they must fill out the traveler form and get a COVID test on the fourth day they have been back in New York State.  They do NOT need to quarantine for those four days.

Clear as mud, right?

If you have questions, let me know.

If you can find something made of wood, knock on it.  All of the schools around us are dealing with weekly cases of multiple COVID infections.  We have been VERY fortunate, I hope we can keep it that way.

Thanks and have a great start to the week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  I wanted to bring you up to speed on a few things that are happening this weekend.  First, our next "Virtual Town Hall" will be taking place this Wednesday from 4:30PM-5:30PM on our YouTube channel, which can be found here...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF57RFmgBLyxbxSNsWCCwUA/videos.  We will be discussing any COVID related news, reviewing the recent community survey, and we will have interviews with Brenda Lehman (Director of Technology) and Dan Blankenberg (Director of Facilities).  They (and I) will also be taking your questions via the chat feature within YouTube.  If you cannot make the live broadcast, you can always watch the recording at a later time.

If you have not had a chance to fill out the survey for our free, hot, grab and go Thanksgiving dinner on November 12th, please do.  The survey can be found here...https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4GxmB3zDWRZqkbNo0gt-O6S3K81UEH87zOYKyvX0nxtdKYw/viewform?fbclid=IwAR2dEgED1x_LaXcLgc0cX8yf9HWTwW7uZmQV5hr0F520tmrJISQDOLSlLAo, and we hope that you will come up and enjoy the great cooking of Carla Woolston and her crew of volunteers!

Many more schools and nursing homes in our county have had positive COVID cases recently.  We are keeping a close eye on this, and if the numbers get high enough, New York State may place us in a "yellow zone", (we do not know the exact metric they will use yet), which will mean that we will need to randomly test 20% of our students and employees over the course of a week.  Again, we do not have the metrics they will be using or how the tests will be deployed, but I wanted you to be familiar with the terminology should schools in the county be told that we have to enter the "yellow zone". If we ever need to enter that zone, I will let you know ALL of the details as soon as I get them.

Also this week, be on the lookout for another read aloud that you can find on our YouTube channel.  The book this week will be "Ruby Finds A Worry", by Tom Percival.

We are still hiring for bus drivers, teacher aides, and groundskeepers. If you are interested, or know someone who is, please contact Sharene Benedict at sbenedict@mwcsd.org or 585-554-4848 x 1815.

Thank you and have a great rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

The National School Lunch program will be continuing free breakfast and lunch for all students in UPK-12 for the remainder of the school year. There is nothing that you need to do on your part. If you feel that your financial circumstances have changed where you may qualify for free or reduced lunch for next school year, please contact Carla Woolston at 585-554-4848 x 1802. There may be other benefits outside of school that you qualify for based on your new income level.

More and more students are returning from all virtual to in-class or hybrid instruction. That has been wonderful news for us. More students returning is putting some pressure on our transportation department in terms of number of students on buses, so if you are able to drive your child to school, especially in the morning, we would really appreciate it if you would.

Also, because we have more students attending classes every day, we are now only allowing students who currently attend school, to attend fully remotely if they have a medical note for themselves, explaining that for a medical reason, they cannot attend school in person. Thank you.

The Marcus Whitman YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF57RFmgBLyxbxSNsWCCwUA) is becoming a source for many different types of broadcasts, including our town halls, Board of Education meetings, messages from principals, and our sporting events.

Beginning this week, I am going to be starting a reading series geared for students in grades UPK-8, with topics related to change, managing anxiety, and feeling comfortable in the uncomfortable. They will be available on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF57RFmgBLyxbxSNsWCCwUA) beginning every Thursday morning for the next seven weeks. Each book video will be narrated by me, and will be about fifteen minutes or less in length. Thank you to our librarian, and to some of our sixth graders, for helping to pull the books that I will be using.

Lastly, there will be a live streamed town hall this Wednesday from 4:30PM-5:30PM. It will be broadcast on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF57RFmgBLyxbxSNsWCCwUA) and you will have an opportunity to ask questions. The topics will be the most recent COVID updates related to Marcus Whitman, the results of the Thought Exchange that you participated in, and we will have two special guests who will talk about their departments and will answer questions. If you cannot watch live, you can always watch the recording at a later date.

I will be sending an email with this information as well. Thank you and enjoy the week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

I hope you are doing well.  This is a reminder that tomorrow is our last Foodlink distribution of this calendar year.  It will take place from 3-5PM at the high school, district office side.  I hope to see you there.

Part of working together is reaching out to get your honest feedback about how you feel the school year is going so far.  Please take a few moments to participate in this ThoughtExchange survey...https://my.thoughtexchange.com/775464640.  The deadline is Monday, October 19th, at 4PM.  Thank you and have a great rest of the week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Evening-

Today we learned through the Department of Health that a student teacher from an area college, placed at the Marcus Whitman high school, tested positive for COVID.  The student teacher worked in the high school, in rooms that we have identified, all day Monday, October 5^th, and the morning of October 6^th.  The Department of Health was quick to point out that this positive case is NOT connected to the positive case we had on Monday.

Because there is a high rate of infection on college campuses, the Department of Health is attacking this case very aggressively, and with an overabundance of caution, quarantining the staff and students who were in the identified classrooms.  This equates to nine employees, and ten students. Those staff and students are in the process of being contacted by us tonight, and will be contacted by the Department of Health tomorrow.  

Again, because of the mask wearing, social distancing, and cleaning that we have been doing, all other areas in the district are “clean” in terms of quarantine or contact.  I was told that the high school could remain open tomorrow for in person classes.  Because I am the “responsible party” for the school District, and for the safety of our staff and our students, I have made the decision to have the high school ONLY (Valley, Gorham, middle school and FLSS will operate as normal) have a virtual day tomorrow for students.  We have thoroughly cleaned the identified classrooms, but the high school has the capability to immediately go virtual, and I would like to give the three impacted rooms a deeper cleaning.  FLTCC students will still attend their programs, and Jenn Taft will put out a call to them later. This will NOT impact outdoor athletics at this time, but may have an impact on the swim meet tomorrow evening, but we will get more information about that in the morning.

This case will NOT be on our state COVID dashboard.  It will be on the dashboard of the college where the student teacher attends.

Unfortunately, this is the “new normal” that none of us want, but we are one big family, and we need to continue to work together and support each other.  Thank you and I will send something else out tomorrow or over the weekend should it be necessary.

Thank you and have a good rest of the evening.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Thank you for your help so far this school year.  Our average daily attendance has been almost 97% since the school year started.  This is exactly where we are when all of the students are allowed to attend during a “normal” school year. 

The New York State Department of Health finally released some updated guidelines for schools and COVID.  I will be sending them to you via email (attached), and they will be posted on our website and social media platforms.  The major changes are that if a student has COVID symptoms, but they represent pre-existing conditions (allergies, migraines, etc…) the doctor can write a note about those pre-existing conditions, and the child can return to school without needing to stay home for ten days.  Also, children who have symptoms can go to the doctor and the doctor can write a note explaining that it isn’t COVID, or can administer a COVID test.  In either case, the child can return to school immediately if the test is negative or if the symptoms go away. If you have any questions, please contact your school nurse. 

Now that we are well into the school year, school bus pick-up and drop off times may have been adjusted from what they were the first few days of school.  This would happen on any school year, but is more pronounced this school year with more parents driving their children than normal. The pick-up and drop off times you are experiencing now should be solid as we move into the rest of the school year.

If you signed up for grab and go meals to be delivered to your child(ren) on virtual or all remote days, that service will begin on October 13^th. If you have any questions, please contact Carla Woolston at 585-554-1802.

Foodlink distribution will be this Thursday from 3-5PM at the high school, District Office side.  The final distribution of the Fall will be October 15^th.

We will be sending home lack of attendance letters ONLY for students we have not been able to make contact with, or who have not been participating in their schooling.  This is different than normal school years, where we would send letters home for ANY students who have been missing a lot of school days.

Lastly, this Friday, October 9^th, IS a school day.  The paper calendar has it listed as a conference day, but we used it at the beginning of the school year.  We are expecting students to attend school this Friday, October 9^th.

Thanks for your continued support, and have a great week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Late this morning we learned from the Department of Health that a student at the high school tested positive for COVID.  After the Department of Health informed us of the situation, contact tracing began immediately.

We were able to trace the student’s every step from the time they left their home on the day that was specified to us by the Department of Health, until they left the building early morning that same day, using video and witness accounts.

We contacted the Department of Health and told them what we knew.  They were very complimentary that our employees and students were following proper safety and social distancing guidelines, and that we were able to contact trace so definitively.

As a result of our employees and students following the proper safety protocols, and the results of the contact tracing, we will NOT need to quarantine anyone, or close any buildings for this particular case. In addition, no employees or students were deemed to have been at risk at any time.

Due to privacy concerns, we are not at liberty to share the name of the student.  Obviously, we are not out of the woods of this pandemic, and I will continue to inform you about positive cases that we become aware of in the future, and what the outcomes are.

Thank you.

Chris

Good Afternoon-

I hope that everyone is having a good week.  This is a reminder that our next Foodlink distribution is tomorrow, from 3-5PM at the high school, district office side.  The USDA has changed how they are packaging the food, and instead of three, twenty pound each boxes of meat, dairy, and produce, they are sending one box that contains 40 pounds of meat, dairy, and produce.  We are being given a quantity limit of 294 boxes, so we are only going to be able to give each car one box.  If we are able to satisfy all of the cars that come through, we will send a call out and will give out the remainder until they are gone.  As a reminder, the next pickup will be the 8th from 3-5PM, and the one after that will be on the 15th, from 3-5PM.  Thank you, and I hope to see you there.

Attached are the athletics spectator guidelines for the Fall season.  Mr. Lahue and I will be recording a livestream tomorrow to explain the guidance in more detail, and if you have any questions, you can contact Paul Lahue at plahue@mwcsd.org.

We will be holding a few more "live-streamed", virtual town halls on our YouTube channel in the coming weeks, and we want to offer them when you will be most available, so you can actively participate.  If you could help us by completing this short survey(https://forms.gle/rrmFm76RsVjpPbB87), I would appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you for continuing to complete the daily health assessment with your children each morning before school.  We are hoping to stay open and even get more students back sooner than later, and it will continue to take all of us working together to make that happen.

Thanks, and have a great rest of the week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of SchoolsEvent Protocols & Expectations for Spectators - Fall 2020.pdf

Good Evening-

Well, we made it to Friday.  Thank you for your continued support and for your patience as we continue to work through this pandemic.  We have had EXCELLENT student attendance both in person and remotely since the beginning of the school year, and that is a tribute to you as parents and to our staff, so THANK YOU.

Our capital project continues to really progress.  We are expecting to be using our new gym and auditorium by as soon as Thanksgiving, and we are excited about that.  You can see that our second floor on top of the high school is moving right along as well.  That will take about 15 more months to be completed.

Thank you to those who attended our recent town halls/parent nights on remote/virtual instruction, as well as athletics.  You can view them and any other town halls we have had on our YouTube Channel which is located here… https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF57RFmgBLyxbxSNsWCCwUA. We will be scheduling more in the near future.

While we have been fortunate to not have a positive COVID case yet, a quick look at the news shows that schools around us have had positive cases.  If we do have a positive case in a student or employee, we will be working with the Department of Health on what they would like us to do.  Also out there is what we will need to do if too many bus drivers, custodians, food service workers, or teachers are out on any given day.

As parents, I would ask you to plan for the worst, and hope for the best.  The worst would be that we have to close schools and go fully remote for a period of time.  The best would be that a particular classroom has to stay home for a period of days due to quarantine, etc…. We will be ready to handle that here, but you may want to plan for childcare, if you need it, for anything that might happen.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can keep moving forward the way we are, and even get more students back to school, but we have to be ready in case that cannot happen for a period of time.

On Monday, I will be emailing an updated flowchart from the Department of Health for our students and employees.  The biggest concern we are receiving from parents and employees is being able to obtain a COVID test if the employee or children do not have symptoms. You can get them, but there is quite a process involved, and I find that unacceptable.

I have been in contact with the Department of Health and have asked to pilot the COVID saliva test in our district, if and when they become more available.  This would allow parents and employees the convenience of being able to get tested locally if they need to be.  We would also be able to get results very quickly and that will help with the timeframe to be able to return to school and work.  When I hear more, I will let you know.

We are following the flowcharts very closely, as we have zero flexibility, unfortunately, and we are closely monitored by the state.  You can keep track of our daily COVID “positives” (we currently have none) by clicking here… https://schoolcovidreportcard.health.ny.gov/#/home, clicking public schools, and entering “Gorham” and you will find our school district.

Just a reminder that next Thursday, October 1, is our next food link distribution, from 3-5PM.  Hope to see you there!

Thanks again for your continued support, and we will continue to get through this together.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Attached are the most up to date student flowcharts from the Department of Health for either being exposed to COVID, or having COVID symptoms.  The two major changes are that the temperature was reduced from 100.4 degrees to 100 degrees, and if a child has any of the COVID symptoms, they MUST get a note from their physician AND either a negative COVID test, OR remain out for ten days. The previous flowchart from the Department of Health allowed students to remain out for ten days and not have to go to the doctor or get a negative COVID test. We have been told that there could be an update coming from the New York State Department of Health, but it may be at least a couple of weeks.

Also, a reminder that we DO have school on October 9th.  The school calendar indicates that the 9th is a conference day, but we borrowed it and used it at the beginning if the school year, which is why the school year started one day later than indicated for students.

Thank you and have a great week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Symptomatic Students.pdf Exposed Students 9 28 2020.pdf 

Good Afternoon-

I hope that everyone had a great week.  I want to say thank you for helping with the daily health checks and for your communication with us.  I also want to thank the students and parents for helping to make mask wearing a priority.  The students have been been great understanding the importance of mask wearing, social distancing, and hand washing.  We will need to continue those three things as we move forward, and I am certain that we will.

Yesterday, the Department of Health gave us un updated COVID flowchart (attached).  It contains an updated symptoms list and also a roadmap of what the school will be doing should a student or employee exhibit any of the listed symptoms.

There are a few frustration points that my colleagues and I are trying to get clarified by the Department of Health, and they have indicated that there may be changes to this flowchart again in the coming weeks.

Under the current guidelines, with NO exceptions, if a child wakes up with any of the symptoms or comes to school and exhibits any of the listed symptoms, they are to remain home or be sent home through our isolation room process.  That has worked well so far.  Unfortunately, we cannot take pre-existing conditions into consideration for students at this time (allergies, migraines, etc...). That has been frustrating, and that is the thing we would like to see changed by the Department of Health.

If a child needs to use the flowchart, they MUST have a negative COVID test either at a testing site or through their physician AND be symptom free before they can return to school.  If they do not get a test, they MUST stay out of school for ten days and be symptom free in order to return.  We are sorry if this causes an inconvenience as we move forward but we are required to follow the Department of Health guidance.  Again, I hope that that we are provided with flexibility in the near future for students with pre-existing health conditions.

This link will take you to all of the COVID testing sites in our area... You can call them ahead of time to see if there are any fees (many are free) and to set up appointments (many do not need appointments).

Thank you again for working with us to keep our students safe and learning.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

 

Good Afternoon-

I hope everyone is having a great day. I wanted to provide you with a few updates. We have been working through some of the technology glitches that have caused issues with Zoom.  Our local BOCES has been monitoring the Internet connection as well as our hardware, and it appears that the sporadic issues are outside of our control, but that doesn't mean that we are not working with whomever we need to in order to find solutions.  One of the pieces within our control is our email.  In order to make it work most efficiently for our employees and for you, BOCES has begun migrating our email to a new server and version of our email program.  We expect the process to be completed by the end of the week.  This should not impact anything, but I wanted to let you know in case it somehow temporarily does.

As a reminder, tonight is our town hall regarding fall athletics from 5-6PM.  We will let you know everything you need to know about the new look of athletics from the perspective of the student athlete, parent, and general spectator.  You can view the town hall on our YouTube channel live or the recorded version, also on our YouTube channel later tonight.  This is the link to our YouTube channel...https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF57RFmgBLyxbxSNsWCCwUA?reload=9.

On September 22nd and 23rd, we will be holding two parent nights, one for all remote learners, and the other for our hybrid learners.  The remote learner night will be on the 22nd from 4-5PM for grades UPK-5 and 6-7PM for grades 6-12, and the hybrid learner parent night will be the 23rd from 4-5PM for grades UPK-5 and 6-7PM for grades 6-12. These will also be on our Youtube channel and we will send the links as we get closer to those dates.  I just wanted you to have them on your calendar at this point.

Thanks for reading, and have a great rest of the week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

We are excited for the first day of school tomorrow, and appreciate your patience these first few days, as we use and adjust to our new systems.  We would much rather err on the side of caution than rush things and cause us to move backward.

The FamilyID process that we use for athletics will be opening so students can sign up for Fall sports, with the understanding that things are rapidly changing, and we do not know what the season will exactly look like.  Stay tuned for more details from the Athletic Director.

The school district will still NOT be a COVID testing site, however, we are now required by the state Department of Health to provide a daily update to them about any positive COVID cases in students and employees.  We would get the testing data from the local Departments of Health. They are calling the interface a "dashboard" and as soon as there is public access to it, we will make it available on our website.

Our next Foodlink distribution will be Thursday from 3PM-5PM at the high school, district office side.  Because of increased traffic due to school, we will have a slightly different traffic pattern, and we will not begin to load cars until exactly 3PM.  Thank you for understanding.

I am looking forward to this school year.  Challenges bring opportunities, which means that we will have plenty of opportunities for success this year!

Take care and enjoy the rest of the week.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools 

 

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Good Afternoon-

We had a very successful week with all of our employees back in the buildings.  We do have some glitches to work out before students arrive next week, but we will.  What isn’t a glitch is our commitment to our students and our community.  That came across loud and clear yesterday; and I am proud to be the leader of such a dedicated group.

I do want you to know a concern that is occupying space in my brain as we head into the weekend, with the hopes that maybe some of you can help.

Our building schedules are tight, meaning, we have spread the people we have to the max.  To be more comfortable, we really need to hire four to five more teacher aides (full-time), several temporary cleaners (probably for the school year at least), and bus drivers (both permanent and substitute).  If you know anyone who is 18 or older and looking for steady work, please have them contact Sharene Benedict at sbenedict@mwcsd.org, or 585-554-4848 x1805. Thank you very much.

I hope to have more updated information from the Department of Health about everything COVID related.  One thing that I think will be coming is a ban on gaiters and bandanas as approved face coverings.  I have heard chatter about it for a few weeks now and was told it would be in the next DOH update.  For now, they are allowed, but don’t be surprised if they aren’t in the near future. I have also heard enough chatter about updates to COVID testing in schools to know that something is probably coming related to that topic as well.  I will keep you posted.

The District Office will be closed tomorrow due to construction, and will reopen next Tuesday. 

Enjoy the weekend, and I am very excited for next week!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Attached is the most updated list of COVID symptoms as of today.  If an employee or child exhibits symptoms before coming to school or work, they are to stay home and contact the nurse or principal/director for further direction.  We expect more updated information from the Department of Health this week.

Thank you.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools CDCSymptomList.docx 

Good Afternoon-

The purpose of this message is to provide you with a few updates as we get ready for the start of school.

We held an administrative meeting yesterday, and I am very confident with where we are in the reopening process. There have been no changes to our reopening plans, frequently asked questions, or Department of Health guidance since my last phone call, so we are full speed ahead.

By now, you should be receiving schedules, bus run information, orientation videos, dates and times for Chromebook pickup, and other important information related to the start of school. If you have any questions about the materials, please contact the building principal or director as soon as possible.

There are three things that you can do as parents to really help us out as we start the school year.  The first is to get your child used to wearing a mask if they will be attending school. We will provide training when they get here, but having them used to the feeling of wearing a mask before they get to us will be very helpful.

Early next week, you will be receiving a student health checklist from me to put on the fridge.  It will contain a few very basic questions that you will answer at home, and keep at home, including taking daily temperatures.  You can consider it your child's ticket out the door in the morning, and we will be spot checking temperatures when children arrive for the day.

The last thing you can help us with is creating an environment at home that closely matches a classroom, if your child needs to have virtual days until we can all get back to school.  This means using headphones for Zoom, having your children in an uninterrupted place, and letting them be students.  With those three things from you and what we are doing at school, we will have a very successful school year.

The Governor announced that high school sports can begin on September 21st, but there are too few details about how they will work for me to give you a proper update.  Once I know more, I will share the information with you.

Thanks for your continued support and enjoy the weekend!

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

Good Afternoon-

Thanks to all of you who participated in our community forums or watched them on our Youtube Channel. Your questions and input helped us to make our reopening plans better. We added all of the questions and answers from those forums to our website and the link to the page can be found here...https://www.mwcsd.org/covid-19/updates.

We spent this week fine tuning our plans and I thank our administrators and employees for working as hard as they have to prepare us for a safe opening to school in a few weeks.

Parents and guardians should be on the lookout next week for emails, phone calls, and mail from the principals and directors containing class lists, bus route information, Chromebook pickup dates, and any other information that you and your children will need to begin the school year.  

We did learn something new about transportation today.  Before today, the use or possession of hand sanitizer by students and bus drivers on school buses was prohibited.  Today, the Department of Health and the New York State Education Department announced that students and bus drivers CAN have hand sanitizer on the bus.

Thank you for your continued support, and have a great weekend.

Chris

Christopher R. Brown, Ph.D.

Superintendent of Schools

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- 

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-

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-

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-

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-

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