May 1, 2020

Dear Beacon Families:

I am guessing you have already heard the news but today Governor Cuomo closed schools in New York for the rest of the year.  While I know many of us expected this announcement, it does not take away how sad this is for our community.  I know as a dad how hard this is seeing my son physically away from his friends and his teachers.  We are living through history and I know I say this all the time but the gratifying part is seeing the Beacon community rally together as it has.  We will continue our meals program and distance learning through the end of the year and we will work on refining and improving as we go.

When faced with bad news, I try to absorb the news but I also try to make some plans.  It is what administrators and educators do I guess.  The planning part is hopeful, action-oriented, and helps me find a way through the hard times.  So, here is what we are working on planning:

• Graduation for our Seniors.  We are working hard to make different plans for our Seniors that go beyond a “virtual/digital” graduation.  We will strictly follow the health guidelines but we do want our seniors, even if it is just in front of their families and everyone is safely social distancing, to walk across a stage.  If it takes 10 hours to do it safely and families come in shifts, so be it.  If we can do better than that with the guidelines of the moment, we will.  We also want to find more ways to celebrate our Seniors at graduation time as well.  We will keep the community updated as we plan!
• Plans for next school year.  Governor Cuomo said out loud today what many of us have been thinking, school is most likely going to look different next year.  He asked in his press conference today for schools to develop plans for next year that enable us to monitor the spread of COVID-19, instill confidence and safety for everyone, plan for the reopening of extra-curricular activities, develop/change protocols for special education students, and look at an alternative academic calendar.   I think the best way to make these plans is to do it collaboratively so I will be gathering input from all community and school district stakeholders as we develop these plans.
• Plan for some more fun.  Friday, May 8th is going to be district-wide field day sponsored by our Athletic and PE department.  We will send out more information next week and we will look for other ways to have fun as a community on this journey as well.
• Budget work.  We are in the midst of a difficult budget season.  As we know more from Albany and Washington DC, we will update on the community on our proposed budget.

We have a lot to do to make the most of this, and we will do our best.  Beacon, we got this!

Matt Landahl  #Beaconstrong