The Pine Bush Central School District will erect a 60-foot by 40-foot tent in the back parking lot of Crispell Middle School to create the extra space needed to get in-person students attending classes four days each week as planned. The district needed more space at Crispell to honor the six feet distance for high school and middle school students recommended in the new state Department of Health (DOH) guidance issued on Friday, April 9.
A resolution passed Tuesday night by the board of education declared the temporary structure an “emergency action.” Installing the tent is essential if in-person students at the secondary level are to return to classes on Tuesday, April 20. Beyond installation, the tent must have a Certificate of Occupancy issued by the State Education Department (SED). The board’s emergency declaration is intended to expedite receiving that certificate.
Prior to the new guidance from New York State released on April 9, 2021, students in grades kindergarten through 12 could be less than six feet apart if they were separated by hard surface barriers. But the new guidance held firm on the six feet distance requirement in areas of high virus transmission, like Orange County.
The new requirements for secondary students put the brakes on the district’s plan to move to four days of in-person instruction throughout the district starting on Tuesday, April 13. Elementary schools were able to move forward with the plan to increase in-person learning from two days to four, but middle and high school students remained on their hybrid schedules.
Superintendent Tim Mains said he believes the tent is a good solution to the problem.
“We can only get so many students in a classroom with six feet of distance between them,” said Superintendent Mains. “For classes with more students than the room can hold with the distance requirement, the overflow students, on a rotating basis, will go to the auditorium and learn synchronously with the class, but remotely.”
Pine Bush High School and Circleville Middle School both have auditoriums to accommodate that situation; Crispell, does not.
The 2,400-square-foot tent will be used for the Crispell music classes, which have already been held outdoors in the nicer weather. This will free up the two music rooms plus the gymnasium to be used at Crispell the way other Pine Bush secondary schools will use their auditoriums.
The plan is awaiting approval from the state Department of Education. As soon as SED issues the needed certificate, Superintendent Mains will call parents announcing everything is a “go.” The tent should be erected on Saturday, April 17.