East Meadow schools release reopening plan for this fall

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The East Meadow School District will be permitted to reopen next month, along with districts across the state, as announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Aug. 7. Cuomo said he based his decision on low infection rates recorded in every region.

The State Education Department is leaving the specifics of how to reopen New York’s 749 school districts to the districts themselves. They are empowered to make decisions about what in-person learning will look like, how much remote learning will be offered and how to implement safety protocols.

To develop a plan to reopen, the East Meadow district formed a School Reopening Committee that included dozens of administrators, teachers, parents, nurses and police officers. Administrators also sent a survey to district parents, asking them about their concerns about and hopes for reopening.

But Superintendent Kenneth Card Jr. said that the district had not been given adequate guidelines from the state, and that making a plan felt like “flying a plane in the dark.”

The district finalized its plan and posted it on its website on Aug. 7, shortly after Cuomo’s announcement.

“When the 2020-2021 school year begins, on-campus school will look much different than previous years,” the introduction to the 44-page plan begins.

Before students return to classes in person, staff members will be trained in all safety measures through an online learning platform called the Global Compliance Network. Students will receive similar training in person during the first week of school from their teachers and school nurses.

Students will be required to have wear masks all day, except when eating lunch and during periodic “mask breaks.” They will have their temperature taken each day and asked other questions about their health, and will be sent home if they have a temperature higher than 100 degrees.

If a staff member or student comes within six feet of someone with Covid-19, he or she must tell a district official, who will report the information to the State Department of Health. The staff member or student will not be permitted on school property until OK’d by the health department, which could mean quarantining for 14 days. If anyone who has been exposed enters a building, it will be evacuated for up to three days and thoroughly cleaned.

The school schedule includes a number of options, laid out in the reopening plan, and is subject to change. There is not enough space in any of the schools for all students to return at once and follow social distancing guidelines, according to district officials, so they are mulling a hybrid learning plan.

Students would be separated into two groups that would alternate between two days at school and two days of learning at home. One group would attend classes in person on Monday and Tuesday, and the other half on Thursday and Friday. All students would have a half-day of remote learning on Wednesday and a full day of remote learning on the days when they weren’t in school.

The plan includes a possible staggered date for elementary school students, who would return to school in person full-time if government guidelines permit. Students in kindergarten through first grade would return to school every day starting Sept. 3. Second- through fifth-graders would return to school for a hybrid-learning schedule starting Sept. 3, and attend every day starting on Oct. 5.

Parents of students in all grades were given the option of complete remote learning, should the district choose the hybrid model.

Patsy Mustafich, who has three children in the district, said she had been “going crazy” trying to make the decision, and was hoping to learn more about the plan at this week’s Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, after the Herald went to press.

Other parents said the plan was confusing, and left out a number of details. One, Lena Vikara, met with a number of others and wrote a letter addressing their concerns, which she sent to Superintendent Kenneth Card two weeks ago.

“We feel that there are things that our district didn’t do or take into account with making their decisions, and the parents were not involved at all,” Vikara said, adding that she wanted to see all students return to school, full-time, on the same start date in September.

“The hybrid plan submitted by the East Meadow School District has left parents and students with many questions that have gone unanswered, or only vaguely clarified,” her letter reads.

She and the other co-signing parents researched other districts’ plans and found that many have been “both creative and effective,” she wrote, in following Cuomo’s guidelines to use “ all available space.”

“We understand that no decision can be made until Governor Cuomo approves or denies the plans of each district,” the letter continues. “However, after looking at the models proposed by other districts, we feel that East Meadow can do better … We want each and every person to be safe, but we cannot let instruction fall to the wayside.”

The district’s reopening plan, with a subsequent Frequently Asked Questions section, can be viewed at https://bit.ly/2ClESl8