Dear Patriot Families,
I am again reaching out to update you on our school district’s plan for instruction over the next couple of weeks. I have continued to participate in weekly meetings with our Clinton County Health Department Officials, local Superintendents, and almost daily with our Administrative Team. We continue to discover that COVID-19 is impacting our school and communities and hindering our ability to open and operate safely. As I have stated previously, we will continue to follow the data and the recommendations from our health experts and remain focused on the safety of all as we move forward.
Based on our latest review, we have decided that all AVCS students will remain under remote instruction until at least Monday, February 1st.
As you are aware, the new anticipated return date mentioned above for AVCS will be entirely dependent on further information that we receive from the County regarding COVID cases in our area. This could be further extended. We will continue to analyze the data thoroughly and will review at our weekly meetings with the Clinton County Health Department. We will do our best to make informed decisions with the ultimate goal of ensuring the safety of all we serve.
Below are some of the key factors in our decision to extend to February 1st:
- We have seen a sharp spike in the number of AVCS employees and students who are under either a Quarantine Order or an Isolation Order. This directly impacts our ability to safely operate school.
- Our county continues to see the effects of the holiday surge. They’ve reported an additional 180 cases over just the past few days. The cases are not going down at this time and the numbers are significant.
- Both CCHD and ECHD have been very open and honest in saying that they are overwhelmed by the number of cases and in fact are several days behind in the communication of quarantine orders to individuals required to quarantine. This could easily translate to people entering our buildings that should be under quarantine.
- CCHD has repeatedly acknowledged that our decisions to remain remote, while difficult, have made a positive impact on the spread of COVID-19 in our communities.
- We have referenced New York’s Microzone Cluster initiative in the past (yellow, orange and red). Local school districts were recently informed that the State is no longer adhering to the initial metrics for classifying areas under this initiative. Under the past criteria, Clinton and Essex counties would have met the classification requirements for a Red Zone. The requirements to exit this classification would have been a 10-day period of decline in the positivity rate and a 3-day positivity rate of less than 4%. While we have seen a small decline in our positivity rate, we are still well in excess of 4%
We recognize that these are very difficult times for everyone. I am confident that prioritizing everyone’s health and safety is of the utmost importance. On a positive note, we are now starting to see the vaccine roll out take place in our region and we hope that this progress will increase even more over the next few weeks and months. It remains very important that we continue to follow the guidelines as illustrated by our health care officials as we are currently still seeing the negative results of those guidelines not being followed over the holiday season. It’s going to take all of us and we will get there together.
Please note, if you are already receiving meals, we will be updating that delivery schedule soon and you do not need to contact us again in order to continue receiving meals. If you would like to be added to the list, please remember that all children under 18-years old are eligible, please contact Chelley Martineau at patriotmeals@avcsk12.org.
I want to thank this entire community once again for your support and cooperation during this time of crisis. I know that I can say with absolute confidence that all AVCS educators want nothing more than a return to in-person instruction. We remain committed to achieving that goal and optimistic that much better days are ahead for us all.
Respectfully,
Paul D Savage II
AVCS Superintendent
