Weather Closings and Delays
November 9, 2020
Dear Parents,
We are so pleased that the school year has begun successfully in this challenging time. If you haven’t already, next week you will be receiving a document called a Provision of Understanding which details the program your child is currently receiving at Center for Spectrum Services. Your child’s County (if preschool age) and School District have also received this information. It will be updated, if needed, over the school year.
If the COVID frequency remains relatively stable, our fully remote program option “C” is ending Friday November 27. Parents who would like their child to continue remotely or change to remote learning only should contact their Family Service Coordinator by November 13th. The next quarter ends January 29th, 2021. Letting us know by this deadline is imperative and greatly appreciated as redoing the schedules is labor intensive and very complicated. If you are choosing the remote only option for your child, we hope this decision will stay in place until January 29th.
Staying safe together remains a top priority! Thanks in part to all of us working cooperatively to follow safety guidelines and get tested when needed, we have had no confirmed COVID cases at either of our sites. As more safety best-practices become clear, we are continuing to refine our COVID policies. Please be aware that parents have the responsibility to:
1. Have a reliable plan to pick up their child from school in a timely manner if the child shows signs of illness at school.
2. Comply with the school requirements to have the child seen by a medical professional and obtain COVID testing when recommended by the physician.
3. Report potential exposure to a COVID positive person and to follow quarantine instructions.
4. Complete the weekly Health Screen for their child.
If parents are unable to follow these guidelines, they will be required to change the child’s program to a fully remote schedule. This will help ensure that the school can remain safe and available to our students and staff.
Some of you have asked whether we can make up sessions if a school holiday or closing falls on your child’s in session day. Given the many complications of the remote and in session scheduling, we regret that this is not possible and appreciate your understanding.
With winter weather around the corner, we want to clarify our inclement closing policy during the COVID emergency period. If we continue to stay in session, we have 7 inclement closing days in our school calendar. If poor weather conditions result in school closing, neither staff nor attending students will come to school and we will not be offering remote sessions that day. This is true for Wednesdays too. If we have a delayed opening, all in person and remote sessions will begin at the delayed opening time. Should we use all our inclement closing days in our calendar, any additional “snow days” will be remote only instructional days. As school districts may be closed at different times to prevent their internal viral spread, our schools in Kingston and Ellenville may not be able to follow the Kingston or Ellenville School District decisions. We will keep you abreast of our opening status through email and text messaging.
I know these policy changes can be confusing, so please do not hesitate to ask you Family Service Coordinator for clarification. Thank you for working with us to make this challenging year work well for staff and students alike.
My best,
Program Director