By Kate Hill
During the March 16 Cazenovia Central School District (CSD) Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Matthew Reilly provided an update on the district’s responses to the developing coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) crisis.
The meeting, which was closed to the public, was live-streamed on the Cazenovia CSD website.
As of the meeting date, there were no confirmed cases of the virus within the school district or Madison County.
The previous day, the district announced the enactment of an emergency closure period beginning Tuesday, March 17 and extending at least until Sunday, April 12 to help promote social distancing practices and support the mitigation of community spread.
The district’s school closure decision was made in concert with the Madison County Department of Health and government officials.
During the emergency closure period, all on-campus activities, events and instruction for students is canceled until further notice.
The district remained open for regular student attendance on March 16 for the purpose of providing children with the necessary instructional materials for an extended period of closure.
“Teachers and staff will be here tomorrow, [March 17,]” said Reilly. “Wednesday, we are opening the building to just those teachers who wish to be here. If they have health concerns or childcare concerns, they can certainly work from home . . . After Wednesday, we are closing the building until Sunday, March 29 for all but essential personnel [e.g., custodians, administrators, cafeteria staff, etc.] We absolutely want to have this as pristine of an environment as possible. We will reassess during that period to determine [if] we can start allowing teachers back in . . . in order for them to utilize resources here that might be helpful.”
According to Reilly’s March 15 letter home to parents and guardians, the schools are working collaboratively at the county, BOCES, local and district level on plans that address safety, communication, continuity of learning, and the delivery of essential services to those students that need them.
“We have, over the last week, done more high-level problem solving than in any comparable period that I know of,” said Reilly. “Last week, we surveyed teachers on their competency in terms of their ability to deliver remote learning and they jumped into the planning process for that. We [also] surveyed students on their internet access and their access to devices — something I think we’ve always kind of had as a ‘to do,’ but we had never done . . . I think we’ve done a good job in a shifting environment of communicating both internally and externally about all the rapid developments that are occurring . . . I think the pace of this high-level problem solving is really reflective of the cooperation, collaboration, urgency and spirit that our faculty, staff and community have exhibited at this time.”
According to the superintendent, plans for implementing the delivery of “remote learning” or “online options” are being developed with consideration for individual student needs, internet accessibility, and delivery/pick-up of physical course work.
“We expect our teachers will be able to continue some degree of learning and some review through the Google Learning platform,” Reilly said. “It’s not going to be what it looks like today, but . . . I think we will see teachers get better rather quickly and students adapt just as quickly. We’ve already talked to teachers about paring down and prioritizing their curricula and reminded them to [also] pare down their expectations of what can be done. We’ve also told teachers that if there can be work done away from the screen, that’s desirable as well.”
According to School Board President Jan Woodworth, the teachers are already demonstrating enthusiasm and creativity with their lesson plans.
“I envisioned a whole lot of hand-outs and worksheets and stuff, but one of the things I’ve seen a lot of is project-based learning,” she said. “It’s wonderful. I think it’s going to be exciting for the kids to work on, . . . engaging and very useful.”
According to Reilly, the district distributed 90 Chromebooks to students in need at the middle school and 53 Chromebooks at the high school on the day of the board meeting.
The superintendent also noted that while the district’s buildings are closed, Wi-Fi is accessible to students in the school parking lots.
“We want parents and students to really have kind of a drive through Wi-Fi experience to download some of the lessons and plans that our teachers are delivering,” Reilly said.
To view maps of the best places to use the Wi-Fi, visit cazenoviacsd.com/wi-fi-available-in-school-parking-lots/.
School meals will be available to all children 18 years of age and under that reside in the school district on weekdays during the Covid-19 shutdown.
Breakfast and lunch will be available in a drive through, grab-and-go format at the Middle School bus circle at 31 Emory Avenue March 17 through April 2 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Both meals shall be picked up at the same time to avoid repeat trips.
Meals will not be served at Burton Street Elementary School, and no meals will be provided on weekends and during April Break.
If the shutdown continues beyond April break, meals will continue to be served on weekdays.
To learn more or to make alternative arrangements, contact Food Services Director Char Grimes, at 315-655-5346, or District Treasurer Donna Meyers, at 315-655-5307.
More information on district plans will be forthcoming.
“There are still a lot of unknowns,” said Reilly. “I don’t sit here with all the answers; no one does. Things will come up. We don’t know how many lunches we are going to serve. We don’t know how we are going to handle kindergarten registration, which was supposed to be occurring this week. We don’t know how we are going to conduct the searches [to find replacements for Burton Street Elementary School Principal MaryAnn MacIntosh and Middle School Principal Dr. Jean Regan]. Most importantly, we don’t know how long this is going to last. What we do know is that we are going to continue to communicate clearly and timely, and we are going to try to answer these questions as they arise. I have confidence that, because of the team of people we have working on these problems, we are going to be successful more often than not.”
For current information and resources to assist Cazenovia-area residents in response to COVID-19, visit sites.google.com/view/cazcovidresponse, email [email protected], or call 315-655-5743 (for seniors) or 315-655-9063 (for other needs).
In other news
The board passed a lengthy resolution addressing some of the district’s needs during the emergency closure.
Assistant Superintendent Thomas Finnerty described the proposed legislation, noting that — along with a number of other allowances — the resolution gives the superintendent the ability to determine essential versus non-essential personnel.
“[Non-essential personnel] absences would be considered excused absences,” Finnerty said. “It allows us to continue to pay those people who are not able to be here due to coronavirus . . . It also states that [it] is with the condition that such employees are available and able to do their normal work or consult by telephone or other electronic means or provide support to the district and the students of the district as directed by the superintendent . . .”
The district has initiated its search for elementary school and middle school principals.
“The response rate for both of these positions was outstanding,” Reilly said. “We had over 50 candidates for both positions. It is both broad and deep, so that is exciting. All of the candidates’ materials were reviewed by Mr. New and myself independently, and then we sat and compared our findings. We found them to be remarkably consistent. Over the next few days I will be conducting video interviews with 25 of these candidates to screen them to be presented at a later date to committees of teachers, parents and support staff.”
The board adopted the 2020-2021 official school calendar. The superintendent prepared the calendar after consultation with the OCM BOCES and the Cazenovia United Educators.
Monthly school board meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Board Meeting Room in the District Office in the Middle School. For more information, visit cazenoviacsd.com or call Superintendent Reilly at 315-655-1317.
