Lakeland Families,

As the holidays and seasonal breaks quickly approach and families seek to gather together to celebrate, please keep in mind the evolving NYS official travel restrictions by state. https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-travel-advisory 

If you and your family travel within one of the designated states, you must quarantine when you enter New York for 14 days from the last travel within such designated state. The travel advisory requirements do not apply to any individual passing through designated states for a limited duration (i.e., less than 24 hours) through the course of travel. Examples of such brief passage include but are not limited to: stopping at rest stops for vehicles, buses, and/or trains; or lay-overs for air travel, bus travel, or train travel.

As a follow up to my letter earlier this week, building principals are required to report any positive cases they are made aware of on the publicly accessible New York State Department of Health website daily. Please be aware that if a positive case involving one of our students or staff is reported and they did not have contact with any Lakeland CSD student or staff member, we will not be notifying the community as it does not involve the closure of school or contact tracing. This is in alignment with DOH guidelines.

In August, if you chose the 100% Remote Learning option for your child via our online form, we required a minimum 10-week commitment, which ends November 6. If you would like to have your child continue to learn remotely, there is no need to do anything. If you would like to switch to the hybrid learning option after November 6, please contact your child’s principal as soon as possible. 

The District is exploring the possibility of increasing the number of in-person learning days for Kindergarten students to four, while still maintaining social distancing requirements in our classrooms. Our Director of Facilities and building principals are working through the logistical issues and we will have a final determination by no later than November 5. One variable that is crucial to being able to successfully implement this increase of students who are physically present is that students who are currently participating in the remote model remain in that model. With that in mind, our elementary principals will be reaching out to Kindergarten families individually to discuss their choice of learning models moving forward. 

Be well and stay safe.
Brendan Lyons, Ed. D.
Superintendent