Canisteo-Greenwood Central School District

Due to a change in the carrier that we use for our mass notifications, the next time you receive a SMS text from the school, it will ask if you want to either "opt in" or "opt out" of receiving our messages through text messaging. Depending on your preference, if receiving texts are the easiest for you, please make sure to "opt in". If you do not want to receive texts, you may "opt out" and you will continue to receive our messages through our other forms (Facebook, Live Feed, Push Notification from the App, or email). We occasionally do voicemails but we find that written messages seem to be the most effective for our community members. We will be sending a message out this afternoon regarding the change in location for Monday's BOE meeting but wanted to let you know what you will see the first time receiving a text.

Due to the new social distancing and masking guidelines, our Board of Education meetings will be held in the HS Auditorium until further notice.

Good afternoon, Earlier today we had a report of two positive cases at CG. One was a teacher who did not have any contact with students today, and a student who had tested positive late last week but their information was inadvertently sent to a neighboring district. Neither of the cases will result in quarantines for any students for staff. We wish both a speedy recovery. Just a reminder, the quarantine requirement is "within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes collectively". However, this year (FOR STUDENTS ONLY), if the positive student and close contact were both properly wearing masks, we will not be required to report the close contact student for contact tracing. The other time an individual will avoid quarantine is being vaccinated (if unsymptomatic). Yours in service, Tom

Good afternoon, After participating in two calls today regarding Friday's NYSDOH announcement regarding universal masking requirements in schools, starting September 1st at CG, all individuals will be required to wear a mask in our school buildings. We will be working on scheduling mask breaks for our staff and students and will make sure that we find unique and appropriate ways to not have our staff and students masked all day long. There is some light at the end of the tunnel with the Governor saying today that she understands that this cannot be in stone and will make modifications as the virus subsides in certain regions. Tomorrow's Open House in the Elementary and HS are going as scheduled and these new requirements apply. We are asking that anyone that plans on attending wear a mask in the buildings and limit their duration in one particular location to less than 10 minutes. The Elementary Open House is open to students with the last name A-M from 4:30 - 5:00pm and last name N-Z will be from 5:00 - 5:30pm. The HS Open House is open to incoming 7th grade students and any new HS students to the district. Due to construction, we are asking that all participants enter the Academy Street door closest to the Fitness Center. I thank you for your continued support and understanding during these trying and confusing times. Yours in service, Thomas J. Crook

Return to School Plan Update: Last week I sent out an email to all of the parents and staff regarding our draft return to school plan. The very next day the new Governor made an announcement supporting universal masking and then Friday evening, the NYS Department of Health put out a statement that masks will be required for staff and students in school regardless of vaccination status. Also in Friday's announcement, there were some references to distancing that were contradictory to what has been communicated to schools this summer. This caused a lot of confusion and frustration for Superintendents into the weekend and still today. I have a call tomorrow morning at 10:30 in hopes to get some clarification. Once I have answers, I will communicate to all of you what the masking protocols will be at the beginning of the year. Please know that I will do everything in my power to make sure that if masks are required by NYSDOH, that we look at all the accepted solutions so our staff and students are not in masks all day long (outdoors, breaks, etc.) indoors. I will also be communicating our Open House protocols for Wednesday night based on what tomorrow's conversation brings. Yours in service, Thomas J. Crook Superintendent

The SchoolTool Parent/Student Portal is now open for students to view their schedules for this coming school year.

If any fall athlete parents are having difficulties logging into Operoo, please contact Trixie McMindes at tmcmindes@cgcsd.org or at 698-4225 ext. 2415. She will be able to assist you.

We just wanted to reach out to keep everyone up-to-speed on a few things: ATHLETIC TRAINER: CG is pleased to announce that we have hired an Athletic Trainer for the 2021-2022 school year. Leslie Moose from Maple City Therapy will be in-district 30 hours/week to assist our athletic and physical education programs. We are extremely excited to be able to offer this service to our kids. Fall athlete parents, the release form to allow Leslie to see your athlete has been uploaded to Operoo. Please take the quick minute to fill out the form prior to the season if you agree to have our trainer with your athlete. RE-OPENING GUIDANCE: area Superintendents and the county health department have been working diligently to get a plan out to our communities. However, the State Education Department put out a notice yesterday that they will be releasing some guidance to schools soon. In addition to this statement, with the resignation of Governor Cuomo and the Lieutenant Governor stepping in, we are unsure if she is going to demand that the state health department issue guidance to schools. With these 2 wrinkles, we are unable to communicate any plan to you at this time. Please know that our intent is to have students here 5 days a week, in-person with appropriate covid mitigations in place. Yours in service, Tom Crook Superintendent

We are pleased to announce that the district will be supplying our students their supplies for the 2021-2022 school year. As you are thinking about back-to-school shopping, do not worry about school supplies. We have got you covered.

ATTENTION FALL ATHLETE PARENTS: This morning we activated the district's Operoo account. All fall athlete parents should receive an email from Operoo prompting them to set up their accounts. The login should be your email that you have in our system and a temporary password sent to you by Operoo. If you have changed your email please contact ext. 2400 so we can get that corrected. If you have not changed your email, you do not need to contact us. This afternoon we will activate the forms in the system and you can fill them out electronically!

Dear Parents/Guardians, We are excited to advise you that we are adopting a new system named Operoo. The Operoo system makes it very easy for you to respond to athletic forms, field trips, registration, and other consent forms using your mobile phone, tablet, or PC. The end goal is to have no more paperwork! No more lost forms or notes found in the bottom of the backpack, no more concerns about children missing out on information when they are absent. It will greatly reduce the burden on you to provide information that is repetitive. It also keeps you informed of all form requests, events, important dates, and backpack letters. We do need a valid email address or cell phone number from you to use the Operoo system. Please share those details with us by contacting our main office staff (Ext. 2401 for C-G High School, Ext. 1400 for C-G Elementary School) if you haven’t already. We will be starting the implementation of the Operoo system with the fall sport athletes. As we continue to work with Operoo, we will gradually be uploading all our forms onto the platform. One key piece of information: you will need to fill out each form in its entirety the first time. Once you have filled out the form, that future form’s information will be populated and all you will need to do is validate or update the information. You will need to do this for each individual form just once. You don’t need to do anything else until you receive an email invitation from us asking you to sign up for your Operoo account. After that, you’ll receive notifications whenever there is an electronic form to complete or a backpack letter to view. We recommend after you set up your account, download the “Operoo Central” app. You or your child’s information will only be visible by the relevant staff for you or your child and will be managed in accordance with our privacy policies. Details about Operoo’s security and privacy procedures can be found here: https://www.operoo.com/terms-policies-security/. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. You can visit the Operoo website for more information here: www.operoo.com. There is also a parent introduction page here: https://www.operoo.com/intro-for-parents/. We hope you enjoy the addition of Operoo to the Canisteo-Greenwood School District. All fall athlete parents will be receiving an email within a few days once we turn the system on. As we upload other forms, invitations will be sent out to more of our parents. Yours in service, Thomas J. Crook

Today, the NYS Department of Health Director Howard Zucker released the following statement: "With the end of the state disaster emergency on June 25, 2021, school districts are reestablished as the controlling entity for schools. Schools and school districts should develop plans to open in-person in the fall as safely as possible, and I recommend following guidance from the CDC and local health departments." This news took us by surprise and the Canisteo-Greenwood School District will be working over the next few days and into next week with local schools and the county health department to develop a re-opening plan. We will be sharing our plan as soon as possible. Please be patient as we work on a plan that is best suited for our children, staff, and community. Yours in service, Tom Crook

We know that many are anxiously awaiting word from the district as to what the beginning of the school year will look like. As of today, we have not received any guidance from the NYS Department of Health. Last Thursday, the State Ed Commissioner released a statement basically calling for schools to follow the new CDC regulations. However, there are so many nuances with that guidance that it still remains unclear due to different colored "zones" and who has authority to make the decisions. We have been in contact with Steuben County Public Health but they are in the same situation we are because they have yet to receive guidance . Rest assured, as soon as we get the official guidance from the NYS DOH, my team will put together the best plan we can for our students and community. We triumphed last year and we will do it again! Yours in service, Tom

Hello all! You have probably been wondering what has been happening at CG this summer. I wanted to reach out to you to give you some updates as to what is going on here in the district. CONSTRUCTION UPDATE – we are in the second summer of our capital project that addressed many of the needs of our buildings and students. The high school is going through the second summer of abatement, and we are close to having that portion of the project complete. If you remember, we had to add 40,000 square feet of abatement to the original scope of the project. Once the abatement of the ceilings is complete, the contractors will continue to install the new univents as well as the compressors for the air conditioning. - When the high school students return in the fall, there will be a fresh look to the front entrance and some of the offices will be in new locations. Prior to my arrival, there were many conversations about switching the nurse’s office with the main office. Since the abatement of the ceilings includes removing the interior walls that have been put up by the district through the years, we decided now would be a suitable time to make that switch. So, in the fall, upon entering the building the nurse’s office will now be located on the right side and the main office will be on the left. We will also be adding a check-in window between the sets of doors for ease of entering the building and checking in with the front office. - The elementary school is seeing some new flooring on the 2nd floor and continued installation of the air conditioning units in the classrooms. Due to last year’s efforts, we were able to commission some of the A/C units for summer school. Our students and staff have been able to enjoy the comfort of a cooled building. Everyone sends a big “thank you” for the approval of air conditioning for the buildings. CANISTEO SIGN – If you have had a chance to drive by the sign, you may have noticed that we have been spending some time up there this summer. We hired a company to come in and remove some trees that were blocking the view from the street and to cut all the undergrowth from underneath the letters to make them more visible. We have also cleared out the switchbacks for your hiking enjoyment. If you get a chance, please take a trip up there to see how good everything looks. Our goal is to make it a premier hiking experience for our community and the surrounding area. - Let us talk about trees. As you know, a few years back all the trees were replaced. The summer that they were planted was brutally hot and dry and we lost 81 trees that summer. Immediately, the district replaced those trees. The following year, 16 trees were lost and those were replaced. Luckily, we only lost 6 trees last summer. We had to order the trees from Ohio, and they were recently planted. So, as you look up at the sign you will see spaces. Please know that there are saplings in those spaces, and they will eventually catch up with the trees around them. Once all the trees have taken to the rocky soil, we will have a beautiful full sign like we once had. Please be patient with the growth of the saplings. o As you look up there you will also notice some dead trees. The plan now is the allow the neighboring trees to fill in that space to give it a fuller look before we take the dead trees out. o We have scheduled routine maintenance of the sign with alternating years of trimming the trees and removing the underbrush. - The district will be investing in some picnic tables and signage to create the perfect viewing area in the grass next to the entrance. OPEROO – As a parent in the district, I know how cumbersome it is filling out the paperwork for athletics and the beginning of the school year stuff. That is why we are implementing a program called Operoo that will allow parents/guardians to fill out the paperwork online ONE TIME. Once you have completed the forms for your child(ren), all you will need to do in the future is to verify that all the information is still the same with a click of a button. You will also be able to go in and change anything that would be important for us to know (new telephone number or address, etc.) and our student management system will automatically update. We are working feverishly to try to get this up and running for the fall sports. We will start with the athletic paperwork first and through the school year upload most of our paperwork onto the platform. Eventually, all school paperwork will be done electronically, and you will only have to fill in the information ONE TIME. It will stay with the student through their academic career here at CG. VARSITY FOOTBALL – If you happen to make it to any of our games this fall you may notice something different. Due to the number of athletes and their grade levels, we felt that to protect the students and the program, varsity football will be going to an 8-man team this fall. The only difference with 8-man teams is that there are less people on the field (thanks Captain Obvious), and that is about it. There are sectional and state titles for 8-man football in New York and many of the schools that we have played in the past are already playing 8-man (Perry, Red Jacket, etc.). This is not a permanent switch and when the numbers are where they need to be, we will move back to 11-man football. - JV football and modified will remain 11-man teams. - For this to work, we need all current players to participate. Not wanting to play 8-man because it is different is like a basketball player not wanting to play 3-on-3 because it is not the normal 5-on-5. Football is football. We encourage our athletes to stick with it and not wait until it is back to 11-man. As mentioned above, a Sectional title is possible. COVID PLAN FOR FALL – I wish I had some news to share with you. As I am writing this on July 23, 2021, the state has not released any guidance for opening in the fall. With a little over 6 weeks before we will return, this is disheartening but not surprising. It takes a lot of planning to follow their regulations, but I feel that we can do it. Last summer we had about 2 weeks to produce our plan and submit it to the state and we have a solid base plan to work from. - Masks – as of right now we are following the “summer” guidance where individuals are encouraged to wear masks but not required. I am not sure if this is going to be the same coming into the fall. My hope is that they allow schools to work with the local health department to decide. Steuben County is experiencing low infection rates at this time, and this should drive what our plans look like in the fall. However, whatever the NY Department of Health recommends, the county officials must follow. - Vaccinations – the FDA has yet to approve any covid vaccination. Any person that has been vaccinated has done it voluntarily from ages 12 and up. This will be a talking point for the state because now they are calling the pandemic “a pandemic of the unvaccinated” and will start to base their recommendations from this talking point. I cannot foresee the state requiring vaccinations this fall because it has yet to be FDA approved and according to federal law, you cannot mandate a vaccine if it is still under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). I am by no means advocating a mandate, but just relaying to you what the conversations are around vaccinations. We hope you continue to enjoy your summer and any information that comes out, I will be sure to relay that information to you. Yours in service, Tom

Due to construction at the high school this summer, all offices are located in the elementary school for the entire summer. If you need anything, please report to the elementary school. Thank you!

It is not too late to run down to the bus garage for the Open House. Come check out the new upgrades.

Good evening, This is just a friendly reminder to all elementary parents. Since tomorrow is the last day for HS students; starting Wednesday, June 16th, the bus schedule will be off a little bit in the morning and in the afternoon. Without having to pick up HS students, please expect the morning pick-up time to be a few minutes early and your student(s) to be dropped-off in the afternoon a few minutes earlier as well. We recommend giving yourself a 10-15 minute window. Thank you for assisting us in an easy bussing transition the last few days of elementary school.

Good afternoon, Some of you may begin to see a news article circulating about one of our Board members. Here is the District's statement: The District received a complaint on June 8th, 2021 from a community member regarding a Board member’s alleged misconduct. On the same day, the District notified law enforcement and other agencies and is assisting them in the ongoing investigation. The District learned from the police last night that a Board Member, Jason M. Mullen has been charged with Unlawful Surveillance of Camera in the 2nd Degree and 2 counts of Tampering with Physical Evidence. There is no evidence to date that any students or staff have been physically harmed or that any misconduct occurred on school grounds related to the charges. The Board member has resigned from the Board of Education. Federal Law protecting the privacy of students prevents the District from providing any additional details at this time, as it could lead to the identification, or confirmation of the identification of the students. Yours in service, Thomas J. Crook Superintendent

Good morning, On Tuesday, the district was informed of a covid positive HS student. The student was last in school Monday. The district performed its contact tracing for quarantine and all of the affected families were notified. We wish this student a speedy recovery. Yours in service, Thomas J. Crook Superintendent

I just wanted to reach out to the CG families today to thank them for their support. After yesterday's masking guidance reversal, our kids did a FANTASTIC job today! I continue to be proud of how our community has handled the ebb and flow of constant change around Covid guidelines. We are almost there. All the staff at CG thank you. Yours in service, Thomas J. Crook Superintendent