On August 30, 2021, the following letter was sent by Jeff Palmer, director of Career & Technical Education, to families of students who will attend Capital Region BOCES Career & Technical Schools beginning in September 2021.
Dear Parent/Guardian:
We hope everyone has had a chance to enjoy the summer and this communication finds you healthy and well!
We are very excited to welcome students back for in-person learning to our Capital Region BOCES Career & Technical Education programs this fall. Faculty, staff and administrators have been working tirelessly this summer to plan and prepare for a safe and healthy school year starting on Tuesday, September 7th for our students attending programs at Albany and Schoharie, and Wednesday, September 8th, for students attending programs at Mohonasen.
The health and safety of our students, staff and families remains our top priority — as is maximizing opportunities for in-person instruction. While we want to see as much normalcy as possible this school year, we must also prepare for peaks and valleys of the transmission of the COVID-19 virus and its variants this year. Rather than mandate a statewide approach, the New York State Department of Health has indicated that school districts and BOCES should decide upon an approach at the local level, guided by recommendations from medical experts.
Using guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the New York State Department of Education, and Albany County Health Department officials, we have developed a plan for navigating the upcoming school year, with the most important details of which are listed below:
- Wearing of face coverings — All students, staff and visitors are required to wear face coverings at all times at school. This does not apply to student who are medically unable to wear a face covering.
- Social distancing — In addition to face coverings, everyone in the school building/program will keep a social distance of three-feet, as often as possible.
- Families and students should continue to self-monitor for COVID-19 symptoms daily, however, the daily health screener used last year is no longer required.
- For students in the healthcare programs, (Two-Year-Sequence of Health Careers, Sterile Processing, New Visions) additional requirements may be implemented by the state and local health officials. A separate communication to those students and parents/guardians will be sent out soon.
As a reminder, here our campus schedules are as follows:
- Albany Campus: Morning session: 8:10 a.m. to 10:34 a.m.; Afternoon session: 11:10 a.m. to 1:34 p.m. Principal Shelette Pleat can be reached at shelette.pleat@neric.org.
- Schoharie Campus: Morning session: 8:35 a.m. to 11:05 a.m.; Afternoon session: 11:55 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. Principal Matt Ward can be reached at matt.ward@neric.org.
- Center for Advanced Technology @ Mohonasen: Morning session 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.; Afternoon session: 11:25 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Principal Makensie Bullinger can be reached at makensie.bullinger@neric.org.
Please visit our website, www.capitalregionboces.org for additional information or reach out to your child’s principal with any questions you may still have.
We look forward to welcoming your child back to school in September! Please enjoy the last few days of summer.
Sincerely,
Jeff Palmer
Director of Career and Technical Education