FAYETTEVILLE-MANLIUS SCHOOL DISTRICT – The Fayetteville-Manlius Board of Education met on Aug. 17 to deliberate over the school district’s reopening protocols as they relate to mask wearing and COVID-19.
In order to allow the district office more time to gather pertinent information, the board members decided to put off a vote of approval for the protocols until their special meeting on Sept. 2, which will include a session for public questions and comments on the matter.
Before the Sept. 2 meeting, the board intends to present a written plan for community families that features every facet of guidance for the approaching year.
Marissa Joy Mims, the board’s president, said that a written document will prevent against the spread of “hearsay” or references to ideas thrown around in past board meetings that have since been scrapped.
During the Aug. 17 meeting, F-M Superintendent Dr. Craig Tice shared a reopening report featuring results and recommendations that emerged from the prior day’s meeting with the district’s medical advisory committee.
Tice said the plan is to require universal masking indoors, including on school buses—a judgment call that the board members came to a consensus on at the close of the Tuesday evening meeting.
According to the superintendent, the medical advisory committee also suggested that navigation to testing sites be provided to students and that it will be the duty of the administrators and others to stay vigilant of those on school grounds who may be symptomatic.
“I would also hope that we will continue to be vigilant for those students that are having a difficult time with the masking—that we offer whatever assistance we can to help those students through this entire return to school full-time,” F-M school board member Elena Romano said.
Tice said that temperature check requirements and the expectation for teachers to wipe down “high-touch” areas will be things of the past, though the district will continue to use air filtration systems.
Additionally, he said plans are in place for lunchtime to be held in the cafeterias for the sake of socialization, while the full slate of extracurricular activities is set to be offered after school.
With the scheduled return to in-person learning, there will no longer be year-long online course options for most students, since Tice said the district would have to hire additional faculty to keep such classes going.
If a “medically fragile” child is in need of a remote learning model, that option will be provided by OCM Boces.
A total of 25 of these remote slots would be open across the K-12 student body, Tice predicted.
School board member Dan Seidberg said the district should better familiarize families with the ins and outs of the BOCES program if their children are expected to commit to it for a full year. He said there should be an option to switch out as well.
“I just want to make sure that as we try to stay student-focused as much as we can that if there are circumstances that would warrant somebody coming back into our student population, that there is a path for that to be reasonably reviewed,” Seidberg said.
Students kept home in quarantine for the ordered 10 to 14 days will be provided with lesson materials either in print form or through Schoology.
Proposing that the district should look into the idea of livestreaming classes containing sequestered students, Seidberg said he hopes for the isolation effects and academic results of quarantine to be mitigated, especially for those who are apparently healthy and asymptomatic.
The school district intends to revisit the guidance month by month going forward in an effort to make sure it remains both reflective of COVID strain transmission rates within its bounds and congruent with local regulations and state mandates.
The superintendent further stated that he and other district leaders are working with legal counsel and union stewardship to find out what can be asked in a soon-to-come survey ascertaining employee vaccine status.
