Dear Senesh Parents:
In the past few days, we’ve seen a sharp uptick of cases in 12 NYC zip codes. While Senesh DOES NOT have any COVID positive cases, we remain vigilant about keeping our community safe. At this point, we do not have plans to close the school, but we want to let you know what would impact our decision to close, if necessary. In making decisions about closure, we would consult with our school’s COVID-19 Task Group and consider the following:
- City or state mandate of school closure
- Faculty and student health
- School’s positivity rate
- Neighborhood positivity rate
- City positivity rate
Should closure be considered, parents will receive a communication via email. We are prepared at any point for one grade, multiple grades, or the whole school to move to our Senesh@Home distance learning program, if necessary. If this were to occur, you would receive an email from your child(ren)’s teachers with a schedule and zoom links. To be prepared, we have been working with lower school students to get them ready for Zoom learning by building familiarity with the remote platforms they would be using to access, work on, and submit assignments. For middle school students, they will learn how the distance learning program will differ from the hybrid program they are currently doing.
In order to keep our community as healthy as possible, it is imperative that we all continue to abide by our community health guidelines and continue daily health screenings. We have a number of families who are not completing the daily Magnus screenings and we implore you to do so as this is an essential tool to keep our community healthy and our children in school. Magnus screenings must be completed for each child Monday-Friday by 7:30am. Failure to complete your screening will result in your child not being able to attend school, whether in person or remotely.
In the meantime, we are excited to announce that we have received approval from the NYC Outdoor Learning – Streets School Program of the New York City Department of Transportation to block off 1st Place between Smith and Court streets to use for additional outdoor space just for Senesh. Beginning October 5th, the street will be blocked off to all traffic from 9:15am to 3pm. We will barricade both ends of the 1st place and have security guards located at each end of the street. Please note, this closure does not include parking, so there will be cars on the street. However, we are lucky that the area right next to our side recess yard at Smith Street and 1st Place is already a no-parking zone, so this is a large space we can utilize for outdoor play time. This additional space will be so wonderful for our kids!
In closing, I want to wish you and your families a very happy Sukkot. May the entire Senesh community be blessed with abundance and good health.
Chag Samayach,
