Dear Pine Bush parents and staff,

As we approach the end of our first week of virtual instruction, I’ve heard a number of teachers express their dismay that some of their students are not logging into their Google Classroom accounts. Or they are logging in, but only completing a portion of the work.  I hope you will remind your students that the current work is not optional, it is required.  Our teachers are doing their level best to provide learning assignments and activities that both follow the curriculum and allow our students to make progress.  While I will readily admit that this online learning is not as rewarding as having your teacher right there with you, we are all trying hard to make the best of this difficult situation.  That means we need the students to do their part.  So parents, even if you are still working in an essential job during this time, we ask that you make time checks to see what your child has or has not done.  If you are not sure how to do that, there is a very helpful 13-minute video on the Parent/Student page for remote learning on our website.  You can find it by selecting the link entitled “Click here for Remote Learning and How-to-Videos” at the very top of the home page (and every other page) on our website.

 If you are a member of one of our many Spanish-speaking families, there is also a link on that page to watch the video training – “Google Classroom for Spanish-speaking families” that was broadcast in Spanish last Saturday, April 4.  That one is about an hour in length.

Now that Regents exams have been cancelled, students will be allowed to earn full Regents credit just by passing the class.  But they can’t pass the class if they don’t do the work.  We will continue to monitor this situation, but please, please, please, stress to your students the importance of logging in to see what the teachers have for them in Google Classroom.

I will take a break from sending this message tomorrow and Saturday, but I will be back on Sunday afternoon. In response to your feedback, I have gone back to aiming for these broadcasts to begin around 7 p.m. weekdays and 4 p.m. on Sundays. It takes about 45 minutes for all of the messages to be delivered.

Tomorrow we will conduct our food distribution that had to be postponed from today due to the weather. Tomorrow’s hours will also be different – 10 a.m. to noon at just PBHS and CVMS (Our third location, the Family Church in Middletown, was able to complete their distribution today.)

This is a season of many religious celebrations. Last night began Passover, this Sunday is Easter, and Ramadan will start on April 23.   Regardless of your religious tradition, or even if you are not affiliated with any religion at all, the fact that we have managed to get through these past few weeks is something for which we should all be grateful.

Tim O. Mains, Pine Bush Superintendent