Superintendent Michael Brooks said he is expecting a full opening of school on Thursday, September 2nd for the 2021-22 academic year. It will be 5 days a week with all students attending in person.

Brooks said, “going back to pre-Covid rules days, there are always health exceptions for children prior to Covid. The exceptions became a little bit of the wild west for us on how to manage it as a system. Certainly, if there are any health related matters that a school district has to accommodate for, we will [and] that will go through the normal procedure of families communicating with their principals and providing medical documentation. Then the school district comes up with an appropriate plan of action with the primary purpose of having children in our schools.”

Brooks touched upon what masks requirements might be in September. He recalled that, in the Spring, masks were required to be worn by staff and students inside the school buildings but were optional for people outside of the schools. If a person was not vaccinated a mask was requited to be worn at all times.

Brooks said during summer school if an individual was vaccinated they had the option of wearing a mask but if someone was not vaccinated, “the mask recommendation became “should” but it never became “shall”, it never became a requirement.”

Brooks said at the Governor’s press conference on Monday the question of whether wearing a mask would be a requirement in September was not answered. Further guidance is expected to come from the NYS Department of Health.

Brooks said, “the good news is we can’t wait to have our doors opened up to our kids starting in September.” He said there is a significant amount of construction work still going on in preparation for the arrival of the students next month. He said the later phases of the Vision 2020 improvements, “are going on at a fevered pitch right now. We have more than 90 construction workers at all three of our schools on a myriad of projects; some you can see from the outside and some of which you can’t see because its interior. We are extraordinarily excited for those bits and pieces to get wrapped up towards the later part of August to be ready for our children the first week of September.” He said, as was expected, the music suite/auditorium at the middle school will be finished later in the fall. Until then staff is making arrangements to accommodate those students until the new building is finished.

Brooks excitement is palpable.

“Boy, am I really looking forward to seeing the ‘wow’ factor when people walk into our Middle School that, quite honestly, is going to be completely transformed in this process,” he said. “That first floor and that entrance is going into what will become a very, very new, high-tech first floor. I can’t wait to show everybody.”

Brooks added that, “the high school is seeing some very nice transformations and we’re making the Elementary School safer plus we’ve got a whole bunch of stuff coming on board during the course of the 2021-22 school year. I can’t wait to keep talking about it.”

Bayside Returns

Brooks said at the September 2nd school board meeting the owners of the Bayside residential project will come to speak to the board. The project has been issued a building permit and will be located next to the Middle School.

At the August 24th meeting Brooks said he will be asking the board to approve a resolution for a Senior Trip for the coming year. Principal Ryan Lawler will be available to answer any questions for the board.

Brooks said Marlboro will be welcoming a foreign exchange student from Italy to the high school this coming year. Lawler is in the midst of making all of the arrangements.

Brooks is also expecting a presentation in September, and at the latest in October, about a swim program. He said Athletic Director Jonnah O’Donnell is putting this program together in a phased approach for the board’s consideration.