Hybrid Learning Pause - Holiday Season Remote Schedule
Dear Clarkstown Parents, Guardians and Staff:
As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, our community is experiencing an increase in the number of reported COVID-19 cases. This resulted in six schools and the District Office being designated in Yellow Zones. In addition, the District has seen a number of our schools need to change to 100% remote instruction due to positive cases among students or staff.
To provide our school community with the time to address the recent increase in positive cases in our county and as a preventive measure, all CCSD schools will be moving to full remote instruction on the schedule below:
- Monday, November 30 through Friday, December 11 (following Thanksgiving Recess) – full remote instruction for all students.
- Monday, December 14 through Tuesday, December 22 – In-person hybrid instruction
- Wednesday, December 23, 2020 through Friday, January 1, 2021 – Schools closed for Winter Recess
- Monday, January 4 through Friday, January 15 (following Winter Recess) – Full remote instruction for all students
- Monday, January 18 – Schools and offices closed in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
- Tuesday, January 19 – In-person hybrid students return to buildings
The District Office will also move to remote work and will receive scheduling information in a separate email.
Staff members in the buildings within the designated Yellow Zones: Laurel Plains, Link, Little Tor, New City, Woodglen, North High School and District Office buildings will not be permitted to access their building during the remote instruction period.
Due to contact tracing in our school buildings, there have been 23 situations where we needed to quarantine significant numbers of students and staff. In 21 of those 23 situations, those schools pivoted to remote instruction for 14 days due to quarantine numbers and staffing shortages. We further anticipate more of these events due to holiday contact, college students returning home, and traveling that may occur over the weekend.
This increase in exposures will result in additional pressure on our already strained staffing levels. Each day, we continue to face staffing shortages for the reasons described in our many communications (quarantined staff, leave of absences, long term illnesses). This has resulted in students being supervised by staff other than their regular teacher and a marked increase in students choosing remote instruction.
A number of other local school districts already have chosen to take holiday pauses. This also places strain on our system, since many of our staff have children in those districts.
As mentioned, there are six CCSD schools and the district office designated in Yellow Zones requiring weekly testing. We are evaluating the challenges of coordinating this testing effort with the Rockland County Department of Health. As we gather information regarding the willingness of students and staff to participate in this protocol, as well as the cost and the logistics of complying with this order, we will inform the community of our next steps.
Thank you.
Stay strong! Stay healthy!
Sincerely,
Martin D. Cox, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Sue Sherlock, FNP
Coordinator of Health Services