As virus cases rise across the country and here in Putnam County, we continue to stay in close contact with the Department of Health and monitor the positivity rates in our area and the potential for being identified by NYS as a microcluster.<\/p>\n
Microcluster Designation:\u00a0 Putnam County reached the threshold to be identified as a \u201cYellow Zone\u201d on Tuesday, November 10; if the county stays above that threshold for 10 consecutive days, it would then be identified by New York State. \u00a0 Putnam County also passed the threshold to be identified as an \u201cOrange Zone\u201d on Friday, November 13, if the county stays above that threshold for 10 consecutive days, it would receive that designation.\u00a0 Please see the graphic below for more information on the zone designations.<\/p>\n
Link to COVID Positivity Dashboard:\u00a0 https:\/\/forward.ny.gov\/percentage-positive-results-county-dashboard<\/a><\/p>\n Link to Microcluster Information:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.governor.ny.gov\/sites\/governor.ny.gov\/files\/atoms\/files\/MicroCluster_Metrics_10.21.20_FINAL.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n COVID Testing:\u00a0 The Putnam Valley School District continues to explore all available options to conduct the required testing outlined with the Yellow Zone designation.\u00a0 We have been working closely with the Putnam County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Health and have recently made some progress in this area, although many questions still remain. If testing were to become a viable option, there would certainly be a delay between receiving the designation and being able to implement any in-school testing program. That length of time would depend on several factors, the most pressing being how long it takes to receive the test kits from New York State and the approval process to administer the tests.\u00a0 We anticipate that these non-invasive tests will be self-administered by adults and administered by our school nurses for students.\u00a0 All testing would be conducted inside of the school.\u00a0 Testing is something we are working toward, it is not something we are capable of doing at this time.<\/p>\n Consent:\u00a0 In order to prepare for any potential in-school testing program, we must begin the process of collecting active consent from each of our families to administer tests to our in-school learners.\u00a0 We are required to test a random sample of 20% of all in-school students and staff, remote only learners are excluded.\u00a0 If we are unable to receive consent for students who attend in-school classes, those students will be asked to switch to remote only status as outlined by the New York State Department of Health.\u00a0 We are working on a consent form that will be sent home to families in the near future.<\/p>\n Unknown at This Time: PVCSD remains committed to transparency during these challenging times, however, there is a lot of information that we do not yet have.\u00a0 I\u2019ve identified some of those items below:<\/p>\n Known at This Time: PVCSD staff has been working around the clock to get answers to our questions and to explore all viable options to safely keep our schools open.\u00a0 Below is some of the information we have at this time:<\/p>\n Thank you for your continued partnership during these difficult times.\u00a0 As a District, we must be prepared to quickly transition to a remote learning for all model if New York State makes that determination.\u00a0 Parents will also need to be prepared for this instructional shift, which could happen by the end of this week.\u00a0 We will continue to explore all opportunities to resume in-person instruction as soon as it is permissible and safe.\u00a0 In the event the district is forced into remote learning, our teachers are well prepared to ensure that students remain engaged and continue learning throughout any closure of our physical school buildings.<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Dr. Jeremy Luft<\/p>\n Superintendent of Schools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Putnam Valley Community: I am so proud of what the students, staff, and families have been able to accomplish these last several weeks. Our students are resilient, our staff is dedicated and I am grateful for the \u201cnormal\u201d moments we are sharing as an educational community.\u00a0\u00a0If you can find the time, I would encourage… Continue Reading Msg. from Dr. Luft – Microcluster information\/Putnam County<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-8435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-superintendent","tag-covid19","clearfix"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8435"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8437,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8435\/revisions\/8437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pvcsd.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Microcluster](\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/n8NwyDQISt4gt-vVkeSTMQZpHtaLcnAhF3IUWABjWpibzTYbVKp6iBf22Yq5rT8Y5S27aeamQd8ElCI1iT1QcUxcxfkkf0RL1iCxujO3KvYGYa4SAiRGpSzxKrl3w4cbwwTzGcMB\")
\n
\n