November 30, 2020

Dear KLSD Community,

Today we learned of 6 more individuals connected to our schools who have tested positive for COVID-19. These are in addition to the three cases I reported to you on Friday.

The most recent cases are four individuals connected to John Jay High School and two individuals connected to Katonah Elementary School. Only one of the high school cases requires contact tracing – that individual was last at JJHS on Tuesday, November 24. The other five individuals were not at school recently enough to require contact tracing.

Due to the quantity and timing of notification, I cannot tell you that every person who had contact with the high school case has already been reached. We do, however, expect that all will be reached this evening. As always, we are working in consultation with WCDOH and our District’s medical director.

At this time, we do expect all schools to be open tomorrow for in-person learning for Cohort A and four-day students. It’s only fair to share with you, however, that reduced staffing (due to quarantining) is increasingly challenging our ability to maintain the current hybrid model. Know that we are doing all we can to stay safely open.

If you heard Governor’s Cuomo’s press conference earlier today, you know that he’s making some adjustments in the State’s virus response in light of rapidly increasingly numbers. You can expect to hear from us in the coming days about testing in our schools and about how to provide consent for your child to be tested. If we’re determined to be within a colored zone (yellow, orange or red) in the coming days, we will be required to test a certain percentage of students and staff in order to maintain in-person learning. It will be our goal to meet the necessary benchmarks. As always, we will need the cooperation of the entire community to do so.

Once again, I wish all those who have contracted the virus a full and fast recovery.

Sincerely,

Andrew Selesnick, Superintendent of Schools