Hello Everyone-
As promised, here is a link to the nearly final draft of our 2021-22 Opening Plan. It has been reviewed by our school physician and will be approved by the Board of Education next week.
The basic idea of the plan is that we will have four different levels of mitigation protocol to choose from based upon the actual conditions in the district, in our towns, and our two counties as the year progresses. We will be following the local data closely and posting it on our website daily. In consultation with our local health departments, we will use the data to make decisions about the level of protocol that will be in place at any given time. It will change over time. The first determination of level will be posted on August 30.
Transportation will run at normal capacity. All transportation services that we had in place prior to COVID (i.e. stop changes, activity buses, etc.) will resume in September. Federal mandates require masks on buses. Of course, we will accommodate parents who choose to drive their children to school.
All of our normal teams and athletic programs will resume. Specific protocols for specific sports are still being worked out by all of the schools in the Suburban Council. More information to follow from the athletic department soon.
All of our performing arts ensembles and lessons will resume as prior to COVID, with specific mitigation layers in place depending on the level we find ourselves in at any given time.
Parents who would like to pursue a full-year fully virtual option through BOCES for their children can notify us by completing this short survey.
We will be live streaming an Q&A session on Thursday, August 19 at 6 p.m. Please submit questions to Tara Mitchell at tmitchell@bhbl.org in advance or that evening. The session will be recorded and available for watching on demand.
We are excited about getting back to school. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate this difficult time. I believe we can do more to return “normalcy” to our kids by working together and approaching this hardship reasonably and safely than by any policies we would make one way or another about masks or the virus.
–Patrick