November 18, 2020
Good afternoon Northern Adirondack Community,
This letter is being shared to inform you that the Northern Adirondack Central School District will take a “Pause” from in-person instruction following the Thanksgiving Recess. We will “Pause” for two weeks and conduct remote learning for all of our students from Monday, November 30th through Friday, December 11th. In-person learning will resume on Monday, December 14th. During the scheduled “Pause” of in-person learning, the District will continue to provide breakfast and lunch to those students who elect to receive it at home. We are asking, like this past spring, that all families who would like food deliveries place a plastic bin preferably with a cover or a cooler by the road near the end of your driveway for easy access for our staff. More information will be shared in regards to food and paperwork drop-offs and pick-ups at a later time. I encourage all of you to download the app for the NAC website either from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, this will allow you to receive push notifications immediately when they are distributed and maintain the District’s Live Feed for information and News sections right on your cellphone.
I completely understand the potential burden placed upon our families in regards to day care during the scheduled “Pause” from in-person learning, but collectively we have determined that the statistics for increased COVID-19 cases following a holiday are staggering and this “Pause” may help prevent any possible spread here at NAC. The “Pause” is also meant to provide all of our students and staff with a break as the numbers in Clinton County, the North Country, and the Nation as a whole continue to increase causing high levels of anxiety. We must consider the mental health of our students and staff during this challenging time, and the decision to take a break after the Thanksgiving holiday will help provide that. This is also an opportunity to have a planned period of remote learning prior to having an unplanned and emergency based need to move to a remote learning process. We have been fortunate thus far with our only positive cases not requiring any contact tracing or mass quarantining, however that can change at any time with the increased number of positive cases in Clinton County.
To recap this letter, our last day of in-person learning will be Tuesday, November 24th followed by a two week in-person learning “Pause” from Monday, November 30th through Friday, December 11th during which all learning will be remote in format. Our teachers will be working from the school during this scheduled “Pause”, so please communicate with them during our traditional daily hours by email, phone calls, and/or the Google apps.
Thank you for your cooperation and support. Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday, and please remain compliant with the social distancing norms, mask wearing, and hand washing, the very last thing we want is for any members of our greater NAC community to get sick.
Educationally Yours,
James C. Knight, Jr.
Superintendent of Schools