Dear SGI Families:
On February 12, 2020, I sent a letter home to all of our families regarding the Coronavirus. A template was sent to superintendents from NYSED and NYSDOH. I want to point you back to the letter as it can be found on our District website, in case you’ve misplaced it. Here it is.
I know that many of you have been asking questions. I watched Governor Cuomo’s address on Coronavirus at 9:45 am this morning and was relieved to hear that the two suspected cases in WNY tested negative. I assure you that we will do everything possible to plan how to handle a Coronavirus emergency in our district. At the same time, I’m encouraged when I read the facts and I encourage you to do so too. Here are two good resources for you to consider. NYSDOH guidance and the CDC. I’ve been inundated with emails from various sources but can point you to none more valuable than those two sites.
PLEASE stress the importance of good hand washing to all of our children—demand it of them and of yourself. We are working to print posters on hand-washing for every classroom and restroom now.
Our full Administrative team is meeting this week to discuss and to plan. We will:
- Review our cleaning protocols AGAIN. These were reviewed with the flu outbreak we experienced, and the protocols are similar. Facilities Director Dave Seiflein is working with Hillyard to identify any opportunities for improvement, to answer the question of whether our hand sanitizer, that’s alcohol free, is effective enough, and to plan for the training of all cleaning and custodial staff that’s already scheduled for 3/20/2020. Again, good hand-washing with soap and water is a great method. Teach our littlest ones to do so while they’re at home please.
- Review our food service practices and protocols.
- Review all scheduled domestic and foreign student travel and monitor those planned trips closely.
- Planning for the worst—if we have the need to cancel school for an extended period of time, can we provide an education virtually? What would this look like? Are we equipped to do so, as least for our SHS coursework needed for graduation?
- Review perfect attendance awards—a main recommendation is to stay home if ill, therefore we will discuss the ways in which we reward good attendance. This is a tough one because we want our students at school but NOT if they’re sick.
If you have thoughts you would like to share that may benefit our SGI approach moving forward, please email me, call (716-592-3230) or talk with any member of our administrative team who can relay those ideas at our Friday morning meeting. We can work together to keep our school family safe.
Thank you.
Kimberly Moritz
I am a grandparent who strongly sees the need for a return to school. The lack of social contact has impacted my grandchildren. If other nations can return to school so can we.