Good evening,

Tonight’s message goes out to both staff and parents, so staff can learn a  little more about issues I’ve been sharing with parents these past few days.  

With virtually no warning and little chance to prepare, we have managed to organize and serve daily meals to 500 kids from three sites, prepared and begun distribution of instructional materials, organized to provide Chromebooks to those who need them, and explored how we can support our first responders and healthcare providers by connecting them with childcare opportunities should they need it – all that and the week hasn’t yet ended!

I want to remind those parents who want to borrow a Chromebook that you must call or email to reserve a time. The switchboard is staffed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.  We’ve already filled all the time slots for tomorrow, and we are currently scheduling into next week. You can call the switchboard (744-2031) or send an email to Chromebook@pinebushschools.org.  Be sure to have your drivers license to show when you come to pick up your Chromebook.

Printed copies of the high school instructional materials will be available for distribution starting next Monday, March 23.  But if you have a computer at home, students should already be logging in each day through Google Classroom to see assignments particularly at the middle and high school levels. A variety of other learning activities are listed on our website.

We are four days in to a school closure mandated by county and state executive orders. I want to salute the many people who are making it possible for us to serve so many students. Hats off to our entire food service staff, the custodians and their colleagues in the Operations and Maintenance division, our Ed Tech department, our instructional coaches, the members of our central office confidential/managerial unit and the many volunteers (both parents and staff) who have stepped forward to help during this emergency.  These people have been showing up each day to ensure our ability to deliver needed food and supplies to our students and their families.  In addition, we have been getting terrific support from the Town of Wallkill,  the Town of Crawford, and our friends at the Family Church in Middletown.  I want to thank all of the workers and volunteers for the incredible job they have done.

We still (fortunately) have no known diagnoses of the coronavirus for anyone in our Pine Bush school community. But the number of people on either mandated or recommended quarantine continues to grow. Given the highly contagious nature of this disease, I’m sure it’s just a matter time before one of those test results comes back positive. If or when that happens, I will let you know in one of these regular calls.

Like you, I am not sure what the future holds. I don’t know if more challenges lie ahead of us next week, or even tomorrow. But I do know that we can get through this together, and the number of employees and volunteers stepping forward each day are living proof of that.

Have a great evening.

Tim O. Mains, Pine Bush Superintendent