Babylon School District Releases Potential Plan For Reopening

BABYLON, NY — The Babylon School District recently released a potential plan for reopening schools in the fall. Earlier this month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that New York schools can reopen only if coronavirus infection rates fall below strict benchmarks to be set in early August.

The "formula" that Cuomo spelled out allows school openings in regions that are in Phase Four and have an infection rate under 5 percent. An "emergency" stop to openings will take place if infections rise above 9 percent, he said. A full decision on openings is expected to be made within the next week.

Babylon school officials presented a possible plan, posted on the school district website, to give residents insight into what schools might look like during the pandemic.

"Know that tough decisions had to be made after months of discussions with consultants, health officials, and professionals in various fields," Superintendent Linda Rozzi wrote in a letter. "While we all dream of the day when schools will return to normal (and they will), September will look a little different. Our re-entry plan incorporates recommendations and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the New York State Department of Health (DOH) and the New York State Education Department (NYSED).

For Babylon Memorial Grade School and Babylon Elementary School, the district plans for all Kindergarten through Grade 6 students to return to a regular full day of in-person classes, five days a week, beginning in September 2020. Under this potential plan, the district will help ensure social distancing by staggering school start and end times and have only 22 students on a bus. Babylon Memorial Grade School will run from 8:25 a.m. to 2:40 p.m. while Babylon Elementary School will run from 8:50 a.m. to 3:05 p.m.

"This procedure will be a temporary measure only used during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure social distancing can be met and was a recommendation by our transportation consultant," the plan reads.

In addition to the elementary school students, students in special education self-contained classes (12:1:1 and 8:1:1 classes) as well as English Language Learners and students in temporary housing will also be returning to school in-person full time. To accommodate the full-time return and proper social distancing protocols, larger instructional spaces will be repurposed to use as classrooms at Babylon Memorial Grade School and additional grade level sections will be added as well. In order to limit the movement of students, the plan proposed that K-6 students eat lunch in their classrooms, but at times may rotate into the cafeteria to eat and socialize if able.

The school reopening plan also includes a plan to possibly have a "creative recess" to allow students to socialize safely through recess yoga and such. The school district would also temporarily eliminate in-person assemblies, field trips and other large group activities as per State guidelines.

The potential plan for Babylon Jr./Sr. High School includes a combination of a half-day hybrid program. Under this plan, students in grades 7 through 12 would return in September on a four day a week schedule running on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The potential plan will include students being assigned to either a daily a.m. or p.m. in-person session that takes place physically at the school. The morning in-person session will take place from 7:40 a.m. to 10:35 a.m. while the afternoon in-person session will take place from 11:35 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Each student will also be assigned a daily virtual session opposite their assigned in-person session that they must attend. On Wednesdays, all students will attend a full day of live virtual instruction that follows the typical day’s schedule. Attendance during each session will be documented.

Under this plan, officials will also limit the movement of student when in school buildings. All 7-12 students will be able to purchase and pick up a "Grab-n-Go" breakfast and/or lunch. Assemblies, field trips and other large group activities will also not be permitted.

Click here to check out the full and plan.

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