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This information was emailed to all WCCS families. If you did not receive the email, please contact the school district on Monday to update your contact information. Thank you. 

December 19, 2020

Dear Wayland-Cohocton Families and Community Members:

As we near the December holiday recess, our circumstances with the Coronavirus continue to evolve, change and create challenges. The current positivity rate for our District is less than ½ of one percent, statistically a very low number, however, when following the guidelines established by the County Health Departments we have been required to quarantine a larger number of our faculty and staff. These quarantines have been mandated out of an abundance of caution and not due to a positivity rate.

When a new situation arises, the district carefully evaluates the safety of our students and staff, the availability of resources and the needs of the community, to determine the best course of action AFTER the Health Department determines who must quarantine. These situations can and have resulted in a shortage of staff and currently the district is struggling and unable to fill absences with substitutes in all areas. 

Therefore, in collaboration with the Board of Education and Administrative team, I have made the difficult decision to move our school district to 100% remote learning for this coming Monday (12/21) and Tuesday (12/22).  Neither of our buildings will have students physically present on campus. This includes the remote learning support in Cohocton. Students will still be expected, however, to participate in learning activities on these days. 

Going remote for those two days will also allow us to keep our numbers down which will in turn help to ensure our return on January 4th and it will allow us to do a trial run of our 100% remote plan. Additional information in regards to the expectations of the students  will be forthcoming from each respective building and teachers.

The district is acutely aware of the need to balance the health and safety of our staff and students with the needs of our community. Remote learning places a burden on families to find childcare and sometimes whether or not to go to work. As we move to our 100% remote plan, meals will continue to be free for all children in our community aged 18 and under. If you are in need of meals, we will have the availability for meal pick up at both campuses’ from 9-11am on Monday and Wednesday at the HS cafeteria entrance and at the Cohocton Elementary cafeteria entrance. Please complete the following link “WCCS Remote Meal Order Form” to order meals. With each decision we make, we weigh all of these concerns with the goal of keeping the buildings open under the health department guidelines and directives. 

The health and safety guidelines are continually changing and predictions are indicating that there may be an increase in positive cases and the need to quarantine throughout and following the holiday season. I continue to urge people to act safely; wear a mask, limit travel and reduce the size of  gatherings in order to decrease the spread of COVID-19. We are all experiencing fatigue from the length of this situation, but I am proud of the efforts our community is making to keep children in school by making good safe choices outside of school. I believe our ability to have stayed open this long is a reflection of that effort. Thank you for your continued support.

Respectively,

Eileen M. Feinman

Superintendent