Seneca Falls Superintendent warns parents of possible school closures

Seneca Falls, New York – In the wake of increasing COVID-19 case numbers and the discovery of a new COVID variant, Jeramy Clingerman, Seneca Falls School Superintendent is warning parents about the potential for short term school closures.

According to Clingerman, bus driver or faculty/staff shortages could lead school buildings to close and go to remote learning.

He urges parents and students to practice safety measures, such as mask-wearing and social distancing. The full letter to school families is below:

Dear Families,

I hope this message finds you well. I want to start by saying thank you for all that you do to support your child(ren) and the district. We are now 14 weeks into the school year and I could not be more proud of our faculty, staff, administrators, students, and parents. It is a lot of work to support students in the learning process. As educators, we appreciate parents talking to their child(ren) daily about the school, checking SchoolTool and other computer programs to see what students are working on or how they are performing. Students are never too old to have these conversations. We also appreciate parents contacting teachers, counselors, and/or administrators when they have a concern about your child(ren)’s academic performance and/or social and emotional needs.

This message is also a reminder to be prepared for possible short-term closure as we see a rise in positive cases in our region and across the state. As we have learned through this pandemic, there are many unknowns and the need to make quick decisions based on unexpected circumstances or things changing quickly. With faculty/staff quarantines and absences due to common illness, we could be faced with a situation where we are forced to implement 1-2 days of remote instruction for a building or district-wide. For example:

If we were short bus drivers and could not fulfill all routes, we would be forced into a district-wide distance learning model for the day.
If a building does not have enough faculty/staff and substitutes to cover faculty absences, the building may be closed for the day and implement a remote learning model for all students in that building.

I’m sharing the above information because there have been days recently where covering all roles and responsibilities has been extremely difficult. I want to thank all of our faculty, staff, and administrators for stepping up and going above and beyond to continue providing opportunities for our students. Thank you as well to our substitutes who are vital to our operation as we could not make it all happen without them.