Pine Plains superintendent suggests a hybrid model by mid-October

PINE PLAINS — Within an hour, the Pine Plains Board of Education’s (BOE) discussion covered a range of topics from the district’s reopening to upcoming meetings during the board meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 16.

Beginning at 7 p.m., the BOE gathered for its meeting via videoconference due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Bringing the board up-to-date on the district’s reopening and the status of its remote learning environment, Superintendent of Schools Martin Handler expressed the usual opening hiccups and reported that the remote learning model “generally is workable,” said BOE President Chip Couse. As far as its special education classes are concerned, Handler advised the BOE that conditions in some of the special education classes required him to make modification so that more students with special needs would physically attend school in-person. He also advised the BOE about the modifications made to some of the online special ed classes at the elementary level; because those class sizes were too large, they have since been pared down to half their size.

Looking ahead, Handler considered that, should the current COVID-19 rate remain low with no significant increases in the school districts that are currently operating with an in-person instruction model, he would recommend to the BOE at its meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 7, that the Pine Plains school district begin a phased-in transition to the hybrid model that the District Planning Committee assembled. This phased-in plan would entail students at the elementary level returning to the district in mid-October and students at the high school level returning around Thanksgiving. However, Couse said that such a decision relies on the conditions at the time as well as the Dutchess County Department of Health showing improvement in testing protocols and a “timely turnaround of testing.”

One meeting highlight that caught the BOE’s attention involved Handler’s recommendation to approve the new New York State Education Department’s rule allowing school districts to convert traditional snow days to remote learning days, regardless of which teaching phase the districts are using and resulting in no snow days. According to Couse, the BOE was uncomfortable with the recommendation and voiced its concerns, resulting in Handler withdrawing the item from the meeting agenda.

After conducting an air flow study of its buildings, Handler said the district’s architects found its systems to be acceptable in a COVID environment with the exception of the Seymour Smith Intermediate Learning Center gymnasium, which might require additional fans. Handler also mentioned that the architects had completed a building study and identified issues arising in the roofs of both the Seymour Smith and Cold Spring Early Learning Center buildings as well as structural facade deficiencies at Seymour Smith that were likely caused by the roofing issues. 

Come Wednesday, Oct. 14, the district’s architects are scheduled to present their findings to the BOE during the board meeting. Preliminarily, Couse said the roof work would be financed from the district’s capital reserve accounts and would likely be in the $4 million range.

Come Wednesday, Sept. 30, the BOE will hold a special meeting to review its 2019-20 board goals and establish goals for the 2020-21 school year.