Dear Connetquot Community,

As you are aware, over the past several weeks the district has been working to prepare a plan for reopening our schools in September. I thank the more than 500 parents, residents and educators who took part in our reopening committees and thousands that shared their input through our parent survey. The conversations and feedback we received through these platforms, coupled with the comprehensive reopening guidance documents provided by the New York State Education Department and Department of Health, were the guiding forces behind the development of the draft reopening plan for our Connetquot schools.

As I know this topic is important for so many in our community, I encourage all our residents to join us this evening as our administrative team presents our proposed reopening plan during our Board of Education meeting, beginning at 7:30 p.m. While no in-person attendance is permitted due to current meeting restrictions, the community can view the meeting live via the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCStvmlXTIJiKVLZOZY7Z8EQ

While our proposed plan will be discussed this evening, I wish to remind our families that the final decision on how and when schools will reopen rests solely with Governor Cuomo. Although our plan will be submitted, as required, by this Friday, the Governor has stated that he will render his decision on reopening New York schools the first week of August (Aug. 3-7). In short, that means he not only has the final say in determining whether our plan is approved, but also in unilaterally deciding how all schools, per region, will begin instruction this fall, regardless of our proposal.

I know that this process has brought forth a number of unanswered questions for our students, staff and families and has been a stressful one for all. Once we present the plan tonight, I know there will be even more questions that you will want to have answered. We will be sending out a survey tomorrow morning for you to ask questions that remain unanswered after tonight’s Board presentation. The District will answer these questions in FAQ document, which will be posted on the website under our “Reopening plan 2020 link”.

I thank all of our stakeholders for your support and patience as we navigate these most unprecedented waters. Please be assured, our main goal has been to develop a plan that is not only safe but educationally sound for all in our Connetquot community.

Please consider joining our virtual meeting this evening and visiting our school reopening webpage, which will be developed on our district website in the coming days.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lynda G. Adams

Superintendent of Schools

The following students were photographed keeping up with their extracurricular literary activities during summer vacation! Great job Vedansh Chatterjee (Grade 4, Duffield), Mollie Lattanzio (Grade 1, Sycamore) and Avyukt Yadav (Grade 6, RMS)!

Don’t forget to send along your submissions to SummerELA@ccsdli.org by Aug. 31.