LISTEN TO GOVERNOR’S REMARKS
Statewide, COVID
Rates Low Enough
To Open All Schools
Locally, Districts Must Organize
Briefings For Parents, Teachers
ALBANY – All of New York State’s 10 regions – Otsego County’s Mohawk Valley region included – have low enough infection rates to reopen this fall, but how to do so will be up to local schools, as reflected in plans developed locally, Governor Cuomo announced in a conference call this morning.
“Based on our infection rate,” Cuomo said, “New York State is in the best possible situation right now. If anybody can open schools, we can open schools. We do masks, we do social distancing, we’ve kept that infection rate down, and we can bring the same level of intelligence to the school reopening that we brought to the economic reopening.”
The districts must follow state Department of Health guidelines, detailed here.
The Department of Health will finish up its review of submitted reopening plans over the weekend and tell local school districts by Monday if they are satisfactory.
Of 749 school districts across the state, 50 plans have been found “incomplete or deficient,” the governor said. Another 127 districts have not submitted plans yet.
By Aug. 21, two weeks from today, local school districts, including all of Otsego County’s, must hold three meetings, virtual if necessary, for parents to review opening plans and answer parents’ questions, and one meeting with teachers so they can voice their concerns.
School districts must also post plans for remote learning, and testing and tracing students and teachers, on their website, the cover said.
“If anybody can open schools, we can open schools,” Cuomo said. “We do masks, we do social distancing, we’ve kept that infection rate down, and we can bring the same level of intelligence to the school reopening that we brought to the economic reopening.”
