Rockville Centre School district set to reopen full-time to secondary level students

Last week, a petition began circulating on social media calling for a return to full-time in-person learning at the secondary level in the Rockville Centre School District. On Monday, Superintendent June Chang sent a letter to district families, outlining a phased plan to bring students back as soon as March 8 — over a month earlier than had been previously discussed by school administrators.

“I’m thrilled that the superintendent sees the importance of getting children back into the classroom full-time,” Carolyn Schwartz, who started the petition on Change.org on Feb. 17, said of the sudden change of position. The petition attracted nearly 400 supporters in a week. “The district should be supporting our students, and it was surprising that he wasn’t pushing for this,” Schwartz said of Chang. “I think it’s phenomenal that so many parents came together to take action.”

Parents and students have been asking for a plan to bring students back to South Side middle and high schools full time since the start of the school year. They are currently operating on a hybrid model, and at the Feb. 9 Board of Education meeting, Chang and Trustee Liz Dion, a member of the district’s Reopening Committee, said that the earliest they could consider bringing students back was April 12, a week after spring break ends. Schwartz and other parents felt that that was too late.

“The numbers are going down and we’re still hybrid,” Schwartz said, referring to the declining Covid-19 positivity rate on Long Island. “It’s unbearable to see students in neighboring districts go back and be successful, and not have this option here.”

Schwartz has two children at Wilson Elementary School, and she said they were doing well on the full-time in-person schedule. She teaches middle school in Baldwin, and said she sees how much harder it is to engage students and to support them, both academically and emotionally, while teaching remotely.

Over the past week or so, parents have ramped up their calls and emails to Chang and the board, seeking answers not only on a plan, but also on the reasoning behind waiting so long to allow a return to the school buildings. A new parent-child organization is also in the works as a way to advocate for students and get more information out to parents.

“A lot of us are feeling lost. Right now, parents have no outlet,” Marleen Maccone, who has two children at Hewitt Elementary School, said of the decision to create the new organization. “And we’re getting no answers from the district.”

Maccone was in the process of forming Rockville Centre Advocates for Children and Teens to “foster a collaborative relationship for concerned parents to work with administrators to create detailed strategies and plans that take into consideration the relevant data, current science and renewed commitment at the national and state levels to get back to full-time, facility-based education.”

“We have the power to change things,” Maccone said. “Right now we are failing our kids. We are looking for positive solutions, and want to be a part of the process.”

Maccone, Schwartz and others have said that one of their biggest frustrations is not getting the answers they are seeking, and many are also confused about the methodology of contact tracing and the rules of quarantining, which has been particularly disruptive since the return from the winter break in January.

“There’s been no evidence of the virus spreading in schools,” Maccone said. “We want to see the data regarding the exposure in school versus community spread.”

Elizabeth Murray-Arnott, who has a fourth-grader, an eighth-grader and a high school freshman in the district, said the lack of communication from the school board was her biggest concern. “Nobody’s getting the data we’ve requested or the information that we need,” she said. “It’s been like this all year long.”

Murray-Arnott said that if the board could simply justify its reasoning for certain decisions, she would be satisfied. “I feel so disheartened to see so many issues going on right now,” she said.

Julie Canty also said that the lack of communication was her biggest frustration. “There is a complete disregard for people in this community asking thoughtful, direct questions, and not getting the answers they requested,” she said.

Canty has children at the elementary, middle and high school levels who participate in sports, and while she has been pushing for reopening full-time, she said the quarantining has become a big problem. “My fifth-grader and high-schooler refuse to go to school,” she said, “because they don’t want to be quarantined and miss out on swimming.”

When she learned of Monday’s night decision, Canty said she suspected that politics might be at play with the new plan, in light of the upcoming trustee elections and budget vote, since only a week earlier, Chang had taken a hard stance on the April 12 date. Canty applauded the parents who have demanded answers. “It’s clear that the work of this group and pressure from parents is the cause of their change in position on reopening,” she said.

According to Chang, three factors impacted the district’s decision-making: A survey had confirmed that over 65 percent of the district staff have been vaccinated; the district had formed a partnership with Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital to assist with the remaining staff vaccinations; and desk barriers had arrived much sooner than expected. He said the order was placed shortly after the Feb. 9 meeting and the barriers were already at the two schools. Chang said the decision was also influenced by the declining Covid positivity rate and the fact that the district has fewer cases than it did after the previous holiday break. The plan is to have eighth- and 12th-graders and high school special education students return March 8, sixth- and ninth-graders return March 15 and all remaining students return March 22, though Chang said that could change if positivity rates increase.

The plans were expected to be discussed further at Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting, and at a reopening forum scheduled for March 3, at 7:30 p.m., in the high school auditorium. Both meetings will also be livestreamed on the district’s YouTube channel.