August 21, 2021
Dear Avon,
This communication is to provide an update to the latest ACS communication regarding the return to school. The latest from ACS was posted on or about 8/6/21. The previous communication established a factual timeline of communications from NYSED and NYSDOH. Additional information was sent to schools since that time.
Factual Timeline of Communications related to Returning in September
Date | Communicator | Summary of Message |
7/7 | NYSDOH | Guidance for Summer Programs |
7/23 | ACS | An information update regarding the coming year |
7/29 | NYSED | NYSDOH is developing new guidance for schools |
8/5 | NYSDOH | NYSDOH informs the field they will not be issuing new guidance: As of June 25th, “...school districts are the controlling entity for schools. Schools and districts should develop plans to open in person in the fall as safely as possible, and I (Dr. Zucker) recommend following guidance from the CDC and local health departments.” Yet, NYSDOH issued guidance on 7/7/21 |
8/6 | ACS | An information update regarding returning to school in September |
Communication Updates Since ACS Information on 8/6/21 | ||
8/9/21 | NYSED | NYSED Commissioner Rosa asserted that additional information is needed from NYSDOH |
8/12/21 | NYSED | NYSED released its Health in Safety Guide for the 2021-2022 School Year |
Repeated | Lt. Governor Hochul | The incoming Governor-to-be has made several statements about a need for universal masking since news of Governor Cuomo’s resignation was announced. She takes office early in the coming week. |
Avon’s practice has been to process new information with LCDOH, Livingston County schools, Genesee Valley BOCES, our school physician, and our school attorney in order to ensure accurate interpretations before taking informed actions. We continue to take the same approach at this time. Additionally, we continue to review our stakeholder survey information, and we will be posting an additional opportunity to provide feedback via ThoughtExchange (TE). More on TE later in this communication. We appreciate your patience because it takes time to process all of the information with the number of persons and agencies involved.
With this background in mind it was our intention to put in place expectations that were informed by the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics and as a result of our local collaboration. The most controversial element of the plans to be established continues to be face coverings. Through regular consultation with local schools, LCDOH, and our school physician, acceptable modifications were going to be put in place regarding masking. Face coverings were needed at specific time periods. Specifically and if possible, we intended to use a combination of metrics to guide reasonable face covering expectations. We hope to be able to use the county status identified by the CDC in combination with information about cases in Avon to determine the extent of the need for face coverings. The greater the risk, then the more face coverings would be needed. The lower the risk, then the less face coverings would be needed. The latest approach created an allowance for up-to-date local community data to factor into expectations.
Please know that the plan for opening is not finalized at this time. We intended to adopt an opening plan at the next BOE meeting on Monday, however, this is not going to happen. No action will be taken at the BOE meeting on 8/23/21. Instead, we will create an additional opportunity for stakeholder input via a ThoughtExchange so we are fully informed when the incoming Governor takes office. Every effort will be made to finalize and communicate the final plan by 9/2/21.
This information about our intentions is shared at this time to let you know about the responsible collaboration that is taking place in order to demonstrate a good faith approach to honoring important guidelines, and at the same time, explain that we will also be using data available locally to better inform decisions about reasonable measures.
To help us to continue to gain perspective, we are introducing an additional feedback tool called ‘ThoughtExchange.’ It is a simple platform that is used to share open-ended questions regarding topics that are important to our school community. The link below will bring you to our exchange if you would like to participate:
With the link to the Exchange, you can confidentially share your answers and objectively rate other responses and ideas. This application includes a variety of features including multilingual capabilities, so participants have the opportunity to prioritize the collective thoughts regardless of who shared them or in what language. People can join the discussion from any device. Please join the exchange and share your perspectives.
We will continue to send additional information in the coming days. Thank you.