Reopening Schools: Cleanliness, Consistency Ranked High In Survey

As they prepared plans for reopening schools, 14 districts in Putnam and northern Westchester invited residents to participate in an online survey about the issues.

There were 13,992 participants in the ThoughtExchange forum, which ended Monday. They offered 23,320 thoughts, concerns and ideas. They also were asked to rank others' contributions on a scale of 1-5, a request they fulfilled, providing 666,742 ratings.

"Truly I am thankful for any information we can gather from our families," Ossining Superintendent Ray Sanchez told Patch. "We know that we need to keep asking our families for feedback via various platforms."

The most highly-rated concern was basic: Disinfecting bathrooms, nurse’s office, cafeteria and common areas and maintaining social distancing in these areas.

That's a concern shared by the 1,650 people who gave feedback to the state Education Department in its Regional School Reopening Task Force meetings.

NYSED's initial guidelines, released Monday, require schools opening buildings to: perform health checks and screenings, per state Department of Health guidance, and recognize signs and symptoms of sickness in students and staff; develop plans to maximize social distancing; develop plans to manage and isolate sick people until they can be sent home; teach students and staff in proper hand and breathing hygiene; require wearing appropriate face coverings; and develop cleaning and disinfecting procedures for the school in accordance with guidance from both federal and state health officials. SEE: Reopening NY Schools Amid Pandemic: Requirements, Flexibility.

The other highest-rated concerns voiced on ThoughtExchange:

• Creating a schedule that will be consistent for the children and parents
• Ensuring extra help available
• Hand sanitizers everywhere
• If a student or staff member is not feeling well they should feel no pressure to have to come to school
• Avoid parents sending sick children to school and using it as their day care.
• Outdoor spaces should be used whenever possible. Teachers should be trained on how to best utilize these areas and all classes rotate.

Also rated highly was a concern about how working parents could manage a program that includes both in class and online learning. "What resources for working parents would be available? I cannot continue my job and provide distance learning to my 1st and 3rd grader," said the writer.

The districts involved in the online forum were:

• Bedford CSD
• Brewster CSD
• Carmel CSD
• Chappaqua CSD
• Croton-Harmon UFSD
• Garrison UFSD
• Mahopac CSD
• Katonah-Lewisboro CSD
• Lakeland CSD
• North Salem CSD
• Ossining UFSD
• Somers CSD

The state's decisions on school reopening will take place during the first week of August. New York officials will use a formula based on coronavirus testing by region to determine whether schools in that region will reopen and when they'd have to close.

To be ready, districts across the Hudson Valley have been working on their plans for weeks.

"At this time, Pearl River School District has 10 different subcommittees working to develop recommendations that address the items that the Regents discussed today," Pearl River Superintendent Marco Pochintesta told Patch Monday. "We are looking forward to receiving the guidelines on Wednesday which should help us focus our work and finalize plans over the next few weeks."

Schools with approved plans will reopen if the region they're located in is in phase 4 of the state's reopening plan and that region's daily infection rate remains at 5 percent or lower over a 14-day average. They'll have to close if the regional infection rate is above 9 percent on a seven-day average.

As of Monday, the seven-day rolling average was 0.9 percent for the Hudson region.