April 1, 2010

Dear Dobbs Ferry Parents/Guardians,

I know that the past few weeks have been difficult ones for all members of our community, especially our children.  Taking children out of their routines, providing instruction remotely, and limiting their social circles have an impact on students, teachers, and families. 

In his most recent announcement on March 27th, Governor Cuomo issued an Executive Order which extended school closures through April 15th.  Per this Executive Order, the Governor also made clear that he expects schools to use any and all scheduled vacation days as days of instruction.  The Deputy Secretary of Education clarified to educational leaders this past Saturday that the language of the Executive Order included the upcoming spring break.  

Accordingly, students will continue to work remotely with their teachers during the week of April 6th. We will also continue with our Monday, Wednesday and Friday “grab and go” food distribution and our Children’s Center will remain open at Springhurst for the children of healthcare workers and emergency responders from Dobbs Ferry and Irvington. As you know, there are religious holidays embedded in the week ahead, and we expect that families - both students and teachers - will observe these days as they normally would. Hence, there might be days when a child’s teacher is not available because of religious observance. It is my hope that we will all respect each other in this regard.

Beginning on Monday, April 13th, students and parents can expect a growing experience with synchronous learning utilizing video tools such as Google Meet and other platforms to deliver and enhance face-to-face, real-time and video lessons designed to deliver new content. Google Meet will be the primary tool used by the District. Other independently used tools can include Nearpod, Flipgrid, Screencastify, Padlet and other Google Suite tools. We continue to ask for your patience as teachers are learning and working very hard to redesign instruction. We will also be sharing with you a “Family Guide to eLearning,” which we think you will find helpful at home.

Additionally, on April 13th we will be asking parents to report attendance for their children if their child will be absent from remote learning. We anticipate that the New York State Education Department (SED) will be asking for some accountability measures related to student attendance.

High School:
Each time a student is absent, parents/guardians must call the attendance office at 693- 1742 or send an email to hsattendance@dfsd.org, to update the absence. 

Middle School:
Each time a student is absent, parents/guardians must call the attendance office at 693- 7640 ext. 3039, or send an email to msattendance@dfsd.org

Springhurst:
Please send an e-mail to springhurstattendance@dfsd.org  If you are unable to send an e-mail, please call the school attendance office at (914) 693-1503 ext. 5.  

 Starting April 13th, I will be going “live” on Facebook every Monday and Friday at 12:00 noon, where I will share brief school updates and take some questions from parents and community members. These exchanges will also be posted to the District website so that all parents can view them at a convenient time. Let’s see how this goes, we’re all learning together!

All of us miss the in-person relationships that we have with one another and long to recreate in a virtual way. It involves taking risks, being flexible and engaging in new and different activities that may be well out of our comfort zone, but we are committed to making it work. I am very grateful to our brave, adventurous, dedicated teachers who are trying their best and getting better at this each day.

I appreciate your ongoing encouragement and support.

Sincerely,

Lisa Brady, Ed.D
Superintendent