COVID-19 UPDATES FROM OUTREACH TUXEDO
Call Father Rick 917 658 6314 or Sue Heywood, St Mary's Outreach Chair, 845 351 3473 for assistance
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MOST RECENT COVID-19 UPDATES FROM THE VILLAGE OF TUXEDO PARK
From The Mayor's Desk - Covid 19 Update -Orange County Covid-19 Update (posted November 2, 2020)
Dear Neighbors,
Clearly, cases and hospital stays have increased in areas of the country, and unfortunately, there have been increases in Orange County too. In today’s Times Herald-Record Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus has reminded residents that while there have been numerous new cases in population centers of Palm Tree, Newburgh, Middletown, the Town of Wallkill, and New Windsor. Statistically, Orange County recorded 155 people testing positive for COVID-19 over the weekend, bringing the county's total to 13,859 since the start of the pandemic. The county's total number of COVID-19 deaths rose by one to 508. Please use all CDC recommended precautions.
Check daily statistics here.
Stay safe.
Thank you,
Mayor Mac
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MOST RECENT COVID-19 UPDATES FROM THE TOWN OF TUXEDO
Tuxedo Town Hall Reopening Monday August 3rd, 2020 - Posted 8/3/2020
Esteemed Town Employees, Town Board colleagues, Tuxedo residents, and visitors. The Tuxedo Town Hall is now open to the public. This follows many weeks of restricted access that was intended to protect Town employees and the general public. Now, Town offices, including the Town Clerk, all have regularly scheduled hours in order to serve you. Hand sanitizer will be at each door and masks are required to enter the building.
The Justice Court, our busiest unit, will resume “in person” operations this week. They have a backlog of cases to adjudicate so managing the crowds will be a concern. We will limit the number of people in the building at any one time and the flow of traffic will be unidirectional. Visitors to the court will enter through the front door, be admitted to the courtroom, go before the judge, and exit through the side door in the courtroom.
Visitors to the second floor, for the Building Department, Assessor, Recreation Department, Supervisor’s Office, or for any other purpose will be directed to enter through the back of the building, up the ramp. Visitors will be advised to call the person they are meeting to either set an appointment or to have someone open the door.
Town Board Meetings will continue to be held via WebEx until further notice. The Community Room, where we normally hold these meetings, is small with poor ventilation and thus not suitable for any size crowd. I hope that in the fall we can begin hosting meetings in person. The Community Room is also a meeting space for our senior citizens so keeping them safe will be an important factor in deciding our public access policy.
All outgoing voice messaging must be updated to clarify that Town Hall is open and that staff are here on a regular schedule. Our webpage message will be updated and all signage should reflect these changes.
As the pandemic continues to unfold The Town Board, working under the direction of The Governor’s Office and Orange County officials, will update our emergency response as necessary. These plans are all subject to change.
We continue to move forward and strengthen our community. So, stay safe, work together, and continue to help those most in need.
Respectfully, Ken English - Town Supervisor
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MOST RECENT COVID-19 UPDATES FROM THE TUXEDO UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICRT
Updates and Information for February (posted 2/3/21)
Dear Tuxedo Families,
Congratulations on a successful return to hybrid instruction! The joyful buzz of your students’ return brought smiles across the school. A special thanks to teachers, Mr. Stankiewicz and the PTO for their artistic and decorative contributions for added excitement and celebration.
This letter contains important reminders and information for the weeks ahead. A hardcopy of this letter will be mailed to you.
February Holidays & Events
Celebrating Valentine’s Day
Building strong relationships and warm, affirming classroom communities is a continued focus for 2021. Valentine’s Day is a wonderful reminder of the ways that we care about and care for each other. As we celebrate the holiday this year, we must do so safely. It is also important that we include everyone in our classroom community. Below are our school rules for all faculty and students:
· Due to COVID-19 regulations, we will not be permitting the sharing of snacks, candy or food
· Valentine’s cards/tokens for the holiday: they should be provided to all students in the class or none; students who wish to exchange individual tokens of friendship for this holiday may do so outside of school hours
Mid-Winter Recess Travel Advisory
We all want to see our students in-person as much as possible. I did explore the possibility of moving this break on account of our remote instruction heavy school year. Due to unavoidable staffing constraints, the move in this break would most likely result in a need to pivot to 100% remote instruction. The level of disruption to make this change is not fair to our students, families or staff. Therefore, the current school calendar will remain in effect.
Tuxedo UFSD will be closed in observance of the President’s Day, Monday, February 15, 2021, through Friday, February 19, 2021.
If you are planning travel over the Mid-Winter Recess, please be advised of New York State’s travel advisory. As a reminder, if your child is traveling to a state or country that will result in quarantine upon your return, be advised that your child must remain home and may participate through 100% remote instruction during that time. Alert your child’s principal (Mr. Brown – GGM (
pbrown@tuxedoufsd.org), Ms. Scariano – GFB (
nscariano@tuxedoufsd.org)) and the school nurse, Ms. Castricone (
mcastricone@tuxedoufsd.org), should your child have to quarantine due to travel.
Additional information on New York State’s travel advisory can be found here:
https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-travel-advisory
Snow Days and Emergency Closings
Thank you for your flexibility with this week’s wintry weather. Safety is of top concern and a priority when making the decision for a delayed start, early dismissal or school closure. These decisions consider the safe arrival and departure of students to and from school while working to maximize in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible. I recognize the Crimson cohort has been impacted the most with these weather related delays and closures and will be reviewing the cohort district calendar with this lens of equity.
During the hybrid model, parents will continue to have the option to keep their child on remote instruction for the day when there is either a delayed start or early dismissal.
Reporting Child Sickness & Remote Instruction
If your child is not feeling well or exhibiting any symptoms related to COVID-19 and well enough for instruction, they may participate via remote instruction for that day. You are to contact Ms. Castricone and your building principal (Mr. Brown - GGM, Ms. Scariano – GFB) to notify them of your child’s sickness and the choice to stay on remote instruction ahead of the school day to ensure accurate attendance reporting.
Upon this notification, Ms. Castricone will contact you about next steps for clearance for your child to return to in-person instruction. Please see our district resource on information for students returning to school after sickness. It is located on the district website and can be accessed by clicking
here and
here (en español). A copy is enclosed in the mailing of this letter.
COVID-19 Updates and Notifications
Tuxedo UFSD reports daily the number of confirmed staff and student COVID-19 cases. New York State has centralized this daily reporting with the COVID-19 School Report Card. On the COVID-19 School Report Card you can see the number of confirmed cases broken out by district, school and whether the staff/student was reported to be in-person or remote on the given day. Please be advised that any staff member of student identified as a confirmed case or a close or proximate contact at the school has already been advised of their status, has received the directive to isolate/quarantine and their in-person return date by Ms. Castricone, the school nurse, by the time the numbers have been reported to the COVID-19 School Report Card.
To increase transparency, we will begin sending notifications to families and staff when we have a confirmed case. This is in addition to the daily reporting to the COVID-19 School Report Card. We will also post these notifications on our district website to ensure timely communication and access to the information. These notifications will be posted under the COVID-19 section of our website (link below). These notifications will also be sent through email. Please be advised that due to HIPAA regulations we cannot disclose any information that personally identifies who the confirmed individual is as it is against the law to share anyone’s medical status: that includes who has been confirmed with COVID-19.
As of today, February 3, 2021, Tuxedo UFSD has no new staff/student confirmed cases to report.
COVID-19 School Report Card:
Tuxedo UFSD COVID-19 Community Notifications:
COVID-19 Proactive District Testing Plan
Governor Cuomo often refers to parts of New York State as being in Yellow, Orange or Red Zones. The designation of these zones across the state are based on the percent of COVID-19 cases. Should a school be located in one of these designated zones, specific protocols would need to be implemented immediately in order for hybrid or in-person instruction to continue. COVID-19 testing is one of these specific protocols.
While Tuxedo is NOT designated as a Yellow, Orange or Red Zone and does NOT have to test at this time, it is important that we have a plan in place in the event that it becomes a requirement. More information on the District’s testing plan will be shared in the near future along with scheduled Q/A sessions for families on this plan.
Hybrid Instruction & Opting In/Out
Staying Home on Remote Instruction / Changing Models
It is assumed that families who opted to keep their children on 100% remote learning will continue to do so for the remainder of the school year or until further notice. If you would like to change your child from 100% remote instruction back to participating in the hybrid model (in-person with their cohort) or vice versa, advance notice of 1-week will be required. Provide this advance notice to:
· Ms. Christine Oliva for grades 6-12 (
coliva@tuxedoufsd.org)
· Ms. Mary Dixon for grades PK - 5 (
mdixon@tuxedoufsd.org)
If your child has to quarantine or isolate due to exposure to COVID-19, please be advised that your child may participate in remote learning during that time. You will have already been in contact with the school nurse if this is the situation and be made aware of the length of this period. Ms. Castricone is in daily contact with Mr. Brown and Ms. Scariano and they will be made aware as well. You do not need to alert teachers to the reasons why your child will be remote as COVID-19 status is protected under HIPAA.
Transportation
It is assumed that families who opted to drive their child(ren) to and from school instead of taking the district bus transportation will continue to do so. If you would like to opt in or opt out of district transportation, advance notice will be required so arrangements can be made. Please contact Ms. Jo Ann Martin should you wish to make any changes:
jmartin@tuxedoufsd.org .
Reminders
Arrival Times for Parent Drop Off
Help us help your children have a smooth start to the school day. Students should arrive and be dropped off no earlier than 7:50AM for GFB and 7:55AM for GGM. Our morning schedules for supervision depend greatly on your cooperation.
Picture Day & Yearbook
On Picture Day, students will have their pictures taken for the yearbook. It does not matter whether or not students have bought a package. Please contact Mrs. Dixon (GGM) or Mr. Takeuchi (GFB) for any questions or concerns about photos. As a reminder, anyone coming to the building will need to complete the COVID-19 questionnaire in order to enter the building.
_____________________________________________________________________________
May this mid-winter weather bring us continued warmth and learning in the days ahead. Stay safe and stay as we continue to move forward together.
As always, feel free to reach out to myself or Mr. Brown should you have any questions.
Regards,
Nicole Scariano
Superintendent of Schools, IA
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MORE RESOURSES & ARCHIVED UPDATES FROM THE COUNTY & THE STATE
