Dear Families:
As you may be aware, last year New York State passed a “Maximum Temperature in Schools Law”, which took effect this school year. In essence, what this law states is that if the monitored indoor temperature in classrooms reaches 82 degrees F we will take action to help relieve the heat-related discomfort by turning off lights, pulling down shades, turning on fans, opening doors and windows, turning off heat producing electronics and providing periodic water breaks. And, just to note, these are all the same things we were doing in the absence of a law. The law goes on to state that if these measures fail to reduce the temperature and/or discomfort we would initiate a relocation process for both students and staff to a cooler part of the facility or to a different facility on campus. In our case that would mean the relocation of students and staff in both the primary and upper elementary schools to air-conditioned sections of the high school building. The high school has an air-conditioned auditorium, gymnasium and various classrooms. If the internal temperatures reach 88 degrees F in student or staff occupied spaces we would be required to close the building and treat it as we would other emergency-related closures, such as snow days. At that point, if we had already used our allotted emergency days (and in all likelihood, we will have used some during the winter months) we would be required to transition to remote instruction, much as we did during the COVID era. The permanent fix to this would be to air condition all buildings but a preliminary quote for this work was in excess of $30 million. The Board of Education does not feel as though this is a viable option at this point.
Please know that we are well aware of the disruptions that school closures and in particular early release days cause. I have heard from many, many families over the years that early dismissal days are extremely problematic for families because of parents work schedules and the difficulty in finding temporary childcare on such short notice. I recognize this and am sympathetic to it, so please know that this will be our last resort, but we will need to be compliant with this new legislation and proceed accordingly.
If the forecast looks as though this may be a possibility, we will try to communicate this with you in advance and teachers will talk with their students about their responsibilities should remote instruction become necessary.
Lastly, on the topic of emergency days, as of April 30, we have two unused days remaining. If there is no need to use one between now and May 22, we will use one on Friday, May 23. It is prudent for us to save the second, in case we are forced to close for any type of emergency prior to the end of the school year. Therefore, you may tentatively plan that there will be no school on Friday, May 23.
Thanks, as always, for the continued support.
Rocco Migliori
Superintendent