Sheboy and others hosted 5 ‘Town Hall’ meetings
Many, many things will be different in the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery Central School District in the year ahead, including the wearing of masks, and the misting of classrooms.
At a ‘Town Hall’ meeting on August 20, Director of Facilities Tom Fargo demonstrated live how that misting process works, noting that it will be done in classrooms between cohorts of students using that room. The fine mist, he explained, coats surfaces where any particles of the COVID-19 virus — or the common cold or flu — may linger, in a manner that traditional cleaning cannot.
That doesn’t mean though, it was emphasized, that school district custodians won’t also be doing that traditional cleaning; in fact, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Sheboy said, the district is hiring more custodians to clean in the district’s three buildings every school day.
As well, Fargo said, the district’s custodial staff has undergone “refresher training in CDC cleaning methods”.
Prior to Fargo demonstrating the way the misting machine works, FMES Principal Rachel Adelstein showed off a classroom in her building which is ready for the fall, including spaced out tables for students to sit at. The same was to take place at the HFIS and O’Neill High School by those building principals this past week.
At the August 20 meeting, Sheboy spoke about health procedures in the district’s buildings in the 2020-21 school year including that access to the buildings will be “limited to essential visitors, students, staff and faculty”.
Most meetings will be done virtually, he added.
Sheboy said the district has been doing a great deal work with it’s school physician, Dr. Peter Gergely.
Imperative, he noted, is that families of students attending school in person must have the most updated emergency contact information on file with their students’ main office and nurse.
“The longer anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 is in our building, the more risk to everyone else,” he said, noting that parents or guardians need to pick up sick children — or those who register a fever coming into the buildings — within 20 minutes of a call from the school.
He also noted that:
— Inhaler and nebulizer treatments that need to be administered at school will be done outside of the buildings.
— Water fountains will be turned off, but water bottle fillers will remain on.
— Masks will be required on buses, including by the bus drivers.
— For the start of the year, all meals served for either breakfast or lunch will be cold (“although we hope to add hot meals later in the year,” the superintendent said.
There have been five ‘Town Hall’ meetings, all are available for view at www.hffmcsd.org, including July 27, August 5, 12, 17 and 20. Virtual meetings that were originally scheduled for Aug. 25 and 27 were due to take place soon.
In addition, under the ‘Reopening’ banner on the website there are documents pertaining to mandated guidelines, and the district’s detailed plans for many aspects of the school year ahead.
