Announcements

April 1, 2021

Dear Parents and Guardians:

The NYS Board of Regents recently issued guidelines for this year’s Grades 3-8 English Language Arts and Math assessments. You may be aware that the state requested a waiver from the federal government to cancel these tests for 2021, due to pandemic hardships affecting students and their educational delivery models. That waiver has not been granted thus far. So, the Regents approved some major changes to this year’s testing, including:
- Math and ELA exams in Grades 3 through 8 are still being given but will only be one session.
- Schools must administer these exams in person, at school. Remote testing will not be allowed. However, “Schools are not expected to bring students into the building to participate in the tests if the students are receiving entirely remote instruction during the testing windows.” This means any student in the “all remote” or virtual instructional mode during testing will not be required to sit for the exams.
- No accountability is tied to the 2021 exams—for students, teacher evaluation, or district progress. As such, there will be no detrimental effect on any group, including the district’s participation rate, if it were below 95%.
- If your child takes these assessments, we will not be using her/his 2021 results for any purpose, as not all of our students will be taking the exams.
- Our district procedure for opting out of the 3-8 ELA and/or math exams remains the same: parents or guardians should contact the district in advance to discuss the specific needs of their child. We commit to a respectful conversation, as it is always the parent’s decision regarding their child’s participation in state assessments.
- As a result of current state guidelines, which require school districts to maintain at least 6ft of social distance at all times, we have had to utilize every square inch of our building to allow for all students to receive daily, in-person instruction. This creates a problem for state testing in that we do not have space available to accommodate all students' needs. Therefore, in order to properly administer the state assessments, students in grades K-2 will be remote on Tuesday, April 20th and Tuesday, May 4th. Students in grades 3-6 will report to school and take the assessments in the morning and follow their normal schedule after completion of the exams. Remote schedules for students in K-2 will be sent home the week of April 12th.
Testing days are as follows:
- Grades 3-6 English Language Arts: Tuesday, April 20, 2021; Grades K-2 Remote
- Grades 3-6 Math: Tuesday, May 4, 2021; Grades K-2 Remote
- Grades 4 (Written): Monday, June 7; Grades K-6 All In-Person
If you have any questions about testing, please reach out to me directly. Thank you for your continued support.
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Dear Families,

Governor Cuomo recently released guidance on the New York Cluster Initiative to aggressively respond to micro-clusters (outbreaks of new cases with a limited and definable geographic region.) Each county is assigned a tiered location and each tier has individualized metrics to enter a yellow, orange or red zone. A yellow zone is a precautionary measure to assist in mitigating wider outbreaks of COVID-19. Each zone has implications for in-person and remote learning.

To be designated as a yellow zone:

*Warren County’s seven-day infection rate must be 3.5% or higher for 10 consecutive days;

*Currently Warren County’s current seven-day infection rate is 1.2%.

*Warren County’s seven-day average of new positives must be 10 or more.

Warren County’s average is currently 4.3.

New York State Department of Health has determined that schools open to in-person instruction in Yellow Zones are required to test 20% of in-person students, faculty and staff over a two-week period in order to remain open for in-person instruction. It continues to be our goal to be open to in-person instruction. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Abraham Wing is actively working with Warren County DOH on developing a plan to conduct our own COVID-19 testing on site under Warren County Public Health’s laboratory certification. Our school nurse will be administering the rapid tests and county health officials will provide the tests, technical support, training and assistance.

2. We will not test your child without your consent. Please read through the consent form and submit it by Wednesday, December 3, 2020.

3. The test itself is non-invasive, simple, and quick. Although a nasal swab is used for this test, it is a shallow swabbing, done very quickly. It is not the PCR test that has been uncomfortable for many to endure. Please watch the video posted on the school website and social media accounts demonstrating a nasal swab.

4. We will test 20% of our in-person population.

5. Testing is not mandatory, and nobody will be excluded from school if they choose not to be tested. However, please consider that if we do not have consent to test a unique 20% of students and staff while in a Yellow Zone, we will need to shift to fully remote learning.

6. The District will randomly sample from throughout the list of those who have consented to testing.

7. Students and staff chosen for testing will be retrieved from classes at their testing time and be brought to the nurse’s office. They will be given the test and immediately returned to their class. We will make this a very quick process so as to minimize time out of class. Due to the daily screening, everyone in person is presumed to be negative. Taking the test doesn’t change that and participants continue to be presumed negative. If a positive test result occurs, the student will be asked to report to the nurse’s office and the procedure for isolating in the nurse’s office and contacting the family for physician follow up will be followed.

8. We’re hoping for your consent! Mrs. Vogel has sent out the link to complete the consent form. The link can also be found on our website www.abewing.org. Similar to the weekly screening form, you will have to consent for each of your children separately.

Questions? Please contact the district at 518-792-3231 or by email at bgeorge@abewing.org.

Thank you in advance for watching the video and considering participation. We’re hopeful that everyone joins in this effort but respect your decisions with regard to your child’s health.

Best wishes for continued good health and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Parent Consent Form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScC3hx6AKENqppF2va-jbszi5xTuiYHHMziamwBeFiSpZqGmQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0&gxids=7757

Please click the link below to view a short video:

COVID Video

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Dear Parents and Guardians,

On Thursday, October 1, 2020 the New York State Department of Health released a new Pre-K to grade 12 COVID-19 toolkit. This toolkit provides parents with a flowchart to use when making the decision to send your child to school for in person instruction. The flowchart also provides parents/guardians with information as to what will be required in order for your child to return to school after an absence. The toolkit was sent home with students on Friday and has been posted on our school website.

If your child is out of school for any reason it is important that you call our school nurse, Lisa Pearl at 518-793-7419 to inform her as to why your child was not in school. Mrs. Pearl will then discuss with you what will be required in order for your child to return to in person instruction. Please do not send your child back to school until you have communicated with Mrs. Pearl and she confirms they may return. If you have any questions please feel free to contact myself or Mrs. Pearl.

Thank you so much for supporting our effort in returning to in person instruction!

Sincerely,

Brian George

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Virtual Learning Presentation

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