Good evening,

There have been several shifts in our current state of emergency that you should know about.  The Governor has issued his own Executive Order that calls for all schools in New York State to be closed beginning tomorrow, March 18, and continuing until April 1. The executive order from Orange County ended on March 27, so now, effectively, we will be closed at least until April 1 or April 2. I continue to believe there is a strong likelihood that we will be closed for longer, but in any event, there will be no spring break as was originally planned later in April.

In our first day of food distribution, we provided breakfasts and lunches for over 400 children. We will continue this distribution Monday through Friday from 11 AM to 1 PM at Pine Bush High School, Circleville Middle School, and the Family Church at 510 M&M Road, Middletown. Tomorrow we will add distribution of instructional activity packets for students in grades. Pre-K to 5, but that will only occur at the two school sites – PBHS and CVMS.  There will be two lanes for pick up.  The left hand (driver’s side) lane for instructional materials only and the right hand, (passenger side) lane for meals and instructional materials.

I understand that several students have inquired about being allowed into schools to gather books and other materials. Sadly, due to the emergency, this will not be allowed. In fact, after tomorrow, five of our schools (every school except PBHS and CVMS) will be closed to everyone through the duration of this emergency.  Students, especially high school students, should be checking their Pine Bush emails at least daily, as teachers are sending activities and assignments to that address using Google Classroom.

I’ve received several offers to help during this time, and we do need volunteers to distribute meals and instructional materials. Volunteers are needed from 10:45 AM to 1:15 PM at CVMS and PBHS. Our volunteer coordinator is Judi Vanduzer.  If you have some time to help out, call or email Judi. You can reach her at 744-2031 ext. 2809. You can also reach her by email at Judi.Vanduzer@pinebushschools.org.  Volunteers will help hand out food or materials to passing cars. We will provide gloves. Judi is gathering names and contact information of volunteers and will also schedule folks so that we can cover the substantial number of days that lie ahead.

Finally, I want to be sure everyone understands that for as long as this emergency lasts, our Board of Education meetings will be closed to the public.  There is a special meeting tomorrow night.  The video for that meeting and all future meetings will be posted to our website the next morning.  We are also exploring the potential of live streaming the meetings on our website, but we certainly can’t get that done by tomorrow.  Once we have that in place, I will notify you all using the School Messenger system.