Dear parents and guardians,
We have a number of updates for you, including food distribution, night school, our school closure period, suspension of State assessments, our FAQ survey and Thoughtexchange opportunities for feedback.
As we enter into a new weekend, the City School District of New Rochelle would like to wish you a safe and happy restful repose with your family. As has been shared in multiple previous communications, please continue to use best practices and limit your exposure to groups of people. Whenever possible, remember to wash your hands and the importance of social distancing.
As we continue in our model of continuous improvement and self-assessment, we have turned our focus to the
food distribution centers
, which have been very successful. Today, our nurses visited the sites and proposed very good recommendations which we intend to implement.
These improvements include
:
●
Installing markers or cones for good social distancing
●
Supplying hand sanitizers to be used by individuals prior to accepting food at the start of any line. It is our expectation that people will sanitize their hands prior to accepting a bag of food.
●
Additional gloves will be distributed to all sites
●
We will install clear signs indicating that no one with any flu-type symptoms should come to the distribution center. The signs will also indicate the need for a good social distancing. The signs and content will be worked on by our Medical Director.
●
Nurses have asked for protective gear to test individual’s fever who distributing the food. We will communicate some of our observations with our key partners and ensure that they are aware of these practices.
●
We know that at some of the community sites concurrent efforts are being made to serve both students and the population at large. We have requested that sites serving multiple end users use different volunteers at each service point. Volunteers distributing food created by the CSDNR should remain in that role only.
Many people have asked in recent days whether the CSDNR has requested that National Guard volunteers be present at our food distribution sites. Please know that we have made that request multiple times. Today, the volunteers were at 95 Lincoln Ave. We hope to see them at our other sites in coming days.
As we continue to address the needs of our students, we are pleased to announce that
night school will resume on Monday, March 23, 2020
. All students who attend night school will now have access to the Distance Learning Plan that has been made accessible to students K-12 who attend school during regular school hours.
The Interim Commissioner of the New York State Education Department (NYSED) clarified that the
closure period
will end at midnight on April 1st and schools will be permitted to reopen the morning of April 2, 2020.
Today, NYSED announced that grade 3-8 State
assessments
are suspended for the year. The announcement can be read in full
here
. This applies to the following testing programs:
●
New York State Grades 3-8 English Language Arts Test;
●
New York State Grades 3-8 Mathematics Test;
●
New York State Grade 4 Elementary-Level Science Test;
●
New York State Grade 8 Intermediate-Level Science Test;
●
New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test (NYSESLAT) in Grades K-12; and
●
New York State Alternate Assessment (NYSAA) for students with severe cognitive disabilities in Grades 3-8 and high school.
Tomorrow, we will share two
ThoughtExchanges
with you so that we may better ascertain how the community feels about the following issues:
●
The second is to harness the community’s thoughts about what a “parent coordinator” is and what their role should be. Those of you who have been following the budget discussions know that we have allocated money in the preliminary superintendent’s budget for parent coordinators (one in the high school, one for both middle schools, and two for the elementary schools). Please
click here
to see the latest presentation on the budget which includes a preliminary job description for this new position. We believe this position will be a valuable tool for our parents and guardians. We would like to hear from you regarding the needs you believe presented themselves in your journey throughout your child’s K -12 experience that a parent coordinator could have helped you with.
The Board of Education (BOE) will have its next meeting on the normally scheduled day of March 31, 2020. As has been allowed through new guidance amending some of the regulations in the open meetings law, the BOE will hold its meeting via ZOOM. Look for additional information about how to join to watch the meeting live. Those who cannot watch live will be able to watch a recorded version, which we will upload to our website. Please know that the public will NOT have the opportunity to engage with the Board and there will be no public comment. All questions should be sent to the District Clerk so that we may address them as a part of the open FAQ section we will soon create on our CSDNR main page.
We thank you for your continued support of the CSDNR. Although these are difficult and uncertain times, we are committed to ensuring that this worldwide health crisis does not impact our students’ learning experience as the days unfold. We are eager to hear from you and have created
multiple platforms for you to share your opinions with the Central Administration team and the Board of Education.
We will continue to keep you informed as things evolve.
