The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Back to School

School Districts Receive Guide from County Relaying Opening Guidelines Surrounding COVID-19

by

Westchester County Executive George Latimer announced on Monday that The Westchester County School Reopening Workgroup has released an eight-page “Frequently Asked Questions” guide that will assist the County’s school districts in addressing the health, COVID-19, and contact tracing requirements for their schools to reopen safely this school year.

Being one of the “major tasks” ahead of us, Latimer stressed working with school districts in reopening is a responsibility the county will do their best to coordinate. As of last week on August 7, New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced he was authorizing school districts to open. This means 44 of the schools in Westchester are approved to reopen their doors to students in September.

“Each of these schools had to submit plans for what reopening would look like with a host of different protocols. And those protocols involve not just what you do physically to keep people safe, but how you intend to educate children,” Latimer explained.

Although the County Government does not directly control school districts, they play a role in helping implement elements of the school district’s plan. Thus, the working group was created, the County Executive states. The Workgroup has been created to provide a direct link between the County’s health and facilities departments to school administrators, staff, faculty, students, and families as they prepare for the start of the school year.

“The most important thing for all of us is to create a safe and effective plan to best educate our students this fall,” Latimer states. “I am proud of the fast and efficient guidance the County and this working group has provided to assist our school district by making this a reality. By creating these FAQs, we are serving the proper role of government: assisting those who fall within our mandate of public service.”

The work group is co-chaired by Joseph Glazer, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Community Mental Health, and Joseph Ricca, White Plains School Superintendent, and President of the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents.

The FAQ’s are part of a larger effort by the Workgroup which has already provided four workshops and answered dozens of questions from school officials and medical staff.

As for the complexity in reopening schools, Latimer acknowledges this is a heavy situation to deal with. “It’s complicated in a school setting. We have the complications in the school setting with younger children. For kindergarten, first, and second graders, it’ll be tough for them to keep their masks on; it’s going to be tough for them to remember who they interacted with.”  Regarding older students, Latimer said, “While they’re capable of understanding what you’re saying, they have to give it the same weight and importance. And one of the issues we’ve had to deal with in this society at large, outside of the school setting, is how do 16, 17, 18-year-olds react when asked to change their lifestyle.”

Not only within the schools, but reopening will also have a large effect on society as a whole. “In opening schools, we are opening a major entity within our society. It’s an economic impact. It directly involves other types of decisions that have still yet to be made.” says Latimer.

“There’s a real dynamic here involved with the schools. This is the biggest thing we’re opening, probably since restaurants. But even restaurants are still voluntary. School, if school is open and is mandatory, you have to participate. And we’ll see how it plays out. I’m hopeful, but the jury is out until we get into it, and I do think we’re prepared. If it doesn’t work, however, we’ll shut it down–I think that has to be your mindset.” the County Executive concluded.

As for the statistics, there are 434 Active cases now in Westchester, a reduction of almost 30 from the previous week, 92 from the previous month, and over 700 from the peak in cases in April. The testing has been “consistent and sufficient,” according to Latimer, with 3000-4000 range of individuals being tested per day. There have been 428,800 people tested, which is well over 40% in the Westchester area, and 1/10 tested have come out positive.

“This is a good sign,” says Latimer. “The statistics are not so you can write them down in a little book; it’s to show that the level of infection here in Westchester County has dropped. And that’s important because here in Westchester, we’ve opened restaurants, retail establishments, beaches, offices, and throughout all of those different changes, we’ve been able to maintain a decreasing level of invention and impact.”

Opportunity to Support ‘Backpacks to School,’ an Annual Initiative of The Sharing Shelf

by

The Sharing Shelf plans to fill at least 1,500 backpacks and seeks to raise $45,000 for this project.

Each summer, The Sharing Shelf organizes its “Backpacks to School” initiative to buy new backpacks and fill them with grade appropriate school supplies for low-income children in Westchester County. The program works with individuals and businesses County-wide to raise the funds needed to purchase everything needed for this initiative, from new backpacks to binders, notebooks, folders, crayons, pencils, pens and paper.

At this moment the last days of being in a school are a distant blur and back to school is filled with uncertainty, whether our children will return to school as we know it, shift into a hybrid system, or continue with home-based schooling.

The Sharing Shelf, in consultation with educators, has decided to proceed with its annual program. These educators have told us that regardless of what form school will be, children still need to learn. They will not only need the usual supplies but also resources to keep them mentally engaged and enriched. It is The Sharing Shelf’s plan to provide not just the basics, but enhanced materials such as age-appropriate educational magazines, puzzles, activity sets and books.

Even before the pandemic and economic downturn, Westchester County was a community with a mix of great wealth yet home to nearly 60,000 low-income children. In some of our communities, 8 in 10 public school students qualify for free or reduced lunch. We believe that number, given the current environment, is probably much higher. In April 2020, unemployment in Westchester county skyrocketed to over 14% from 4% in January 2020.  Meanwhile, the average family spends $122 on school supplies, a sum out of reach for families struggling financially.  

The Sharing Shelf plans to fill at least 1,500 backpacks and seeks to raise $45,000 for this project. Volunteers will help assemble the backpacks, using social distancing in a special area at The Sharing Shelf’s Port Chester warehouse during the month of August. The backpacks and supplies are critical to the academic success of low-income children and will allow them to return to school prepared, confident, and ready to learn.

To find out more about how to help or to donate, please contact The Sharing Shelf Program Director, Deborah Blatt at dblatt@sharingshelf.org or (914) 305-5950. You may also visit www.sharingshelf.org and click on Backpacks to School

About The Sharing Shelf

Founded in 2009, The Sharing Shelf is Westchester’s Clothing Bank for Children. The program collects new and gently used clothing for infants, children and teens. The clothing is distributed to local, low-income children through area social service agencies, schools, hospitals and other non-profits at no cost. The children receive a week’s worth of seasonally appropriate clothing matched to their sizing needs. Since 2011, The Sharing Shelf has been filling new backpacks with fresh supplies for back to school. For more information, visit www.sharingshelf.org

This story is courtesy of The Sharing Shelf.

As Cases of COVID Dissipate, Westchester County Focuses on ‘Complicated’ Back to School Protocol

by

Continuing Precautions Urged as “We Adapt to the Strangeness”

In this week’s briefing on COVID-19, County Executive George Latimer delivered another encouraging message that the Coronavirus numbers “continue to show the dimension we’ve been talking about for quite a while.”

According to Latimer, 347,649, or 35%, of people in Westchester County have been tested for Coronavirus, and despite the rise in testing, numbers are at an all-time low of 467 active cases since the pandemic began.

“That’s a significant number,” he stated, “We’re seeing steadily every day 3,000 or 4,000 tests in Westchester County since testing is much easier to obtain now than it ever has been before.”

In Chappaqua, an earlier spike due to the Horace Greeley High School graduation and field day, has “run its course.” Now a month since the incident, there have been no new cases identified in the past week. The same goes for the 4th of July weekend. Now two weeks past the holiday, the period of incubation for the Coronavirus, there has been no spike in cases, which is a good sign, Latimer noted.

However, similar to last week’s briefing, the county executive stressed, “there is nothing to be overly confident about. I say that very dispassionately with a corporate mindset. We are doing well, but we’re not through the woods. We still have no understood vaccine to treat the disease. Nor do we have an antiviral treatment for the disease.”

He urged residents to wear masks, practice social distancing, wash and sanitize our hands, and refrain from activities that can put people in harm’s way.

In other news, the county has been having meetings for reopening schools across Westchester this fall, including K-12 and college to help the local education institutions meet protocols set down by the state and open safely.

“You can imagine each of those two different types of education has different challenges,” Latimer conveyed, “On the K-12 side, you’re dealing with children whose ability to follow certain restrictions and orders is much more difficult than older students,” he explained.

“When you get to the college level, you’re dealing with students who are on campus in a dorm setting, and that overnight residential setting crates other types of problems than in a K-12 situation. In working with each of those, we’re trying to put together a practical group of people to work with.”

As of now, Latimer reported a “working group” that has been developed for the local school districts will include the deputy commissioner of mental health, White Plains School Superintendent, and some others in the Department of Health.

“They’ll all be working as a task force with our local elementary schools to try to provide that assistance that the schools need from the county. Whether it’s the structure in contact tracing protocols, what to do in situations when someone in the school tests positive, or assisting in purchasing personal protective equipment, all of those things and many more are part of those efforts we’re in the process of serving.”

The school situation is very complicated, said Latimer, and in need of great vigilance. “We’re dealing with a public service that probably touches more homes than any other single one because the community involves the school and the homes of which students live in. This could be an area for the great spread of the disease if we’re not exceedingly careful.”

“Overall, we’re looking at trying to deal with this strange world and adapt to the strangeness of it. I think we’ve tried to do that effectively now into our fifth month.”

According to the County Executive, the governor will announce on August 7 whether schools will open up and if so, under what circumstances.

Back to School: Then and Now

by

Full disclosure – Deadlines being what they are, I am writing this back to school piece at the end of June. School just ended today and my youngest son graduated high school a week ago. As the weather is finally starting to get steamy, it’s a bit hard to imagine school resuming again, though of course I know it will.

Things have changed a lot since my oldest son started kindergarten in 1996. Back then, there was no online shopping and no prepackaged school supplies vendors. We would take the supply list we received by snail mail to Staples and, in scavenger hunt style, search for each item. There were always one or two items we had difficulty finding and we would go to another store on our way home to complete our task.

By the time my youngest son began school in 2006, to quote B.B. King, “The Thrill Was Gone” and I was only too happy to take an easier route and get the prepackaged box of supplies from Supplies to Please, rather than dragging all three kids to the store. I admit that although it was easier, there was a small part of me that missed the annual ritual.

Another thing that was different “way back when” was that there was no portal. Our district didn’t launch it until my middle son was in high school and, initially, it was only for report cards at the mid-point and end of each quarter. Now, in addition to report cards, there are grades for each test, homework assignment and more. The portal was accessible all the time until the district shut it down during school hours because some kids were checking their grades between each class, which was extremely anxiety provoking.

Although I found there were certain advantages to having a portal, I also felt that with its implementation something was lost. I missed the days when a teacher would have to pick up the phone to tell me my kid was screwing up. The portal made things impersonal and wasn’t always even all that accurate–some teachers seemed to update it all the time, while others (despite district guidelines) were slow to post on it. Having come late to the portal technology, I never got the hang how often I was supposed to be checking and how much responsibility I should leave to my child, although maybe there isn’t one right formula for that.

Another less-than-positive change is the pressure of getting into college, which has escalated to an alarming degree over the ten-year spread between my oldest and youngest. Living in a high achieving town where educators and parent put undue emphasis on college ratings, there were always demands on the students.

Recently, it’s gotten completely out of control, as was highlighted by the college admissions scandal.

Whereas some of my oldest son’s classmates were tutored for college entrance exams or an occasional subject in which they were struggling, now there are tutors for everything–SATs, ACTs, Regents, SAT 2s, even the ELAs. I thought my youngest was joking when he told me that but, apparently, it’s a thing. While it may be good news for tutoring businesses, it’s incredibly expensive, as well as time-consuming.

While schools are offering mindfulness classes and workshops for parents billed as “How to help your student manage stress,” they seem to be swimming against the tide. Parents are stressed. Kids are stressed. I am not sure where it’s all heading but I can say for sure that where someone goes to college is way less important than what they do when they get there.

There are a lot of mental health issues and angst in college and strengthening the skills that can alleviate some of those issues before a kid starts college is crucial. Working on independence, self-advocacy, balance between work and play, etc. needs to take precedence over getting admitted to a school a few slots higher on the US News and World Reports college lists.

Even though much has changed over the decades, I can say for sure that one thing that has not changed is the desire well-meaning parents have to do the best they can for their children, whatever form that might take. I am curious to see what transformations in edu-cation occur in the upcoming years.

Although I will be a spectator and not an active participant in the 2019-2020 school year, I wish all the parents and their students a successful year, one that’s filled with growth, learning, and joy in the process.

Back To School & Your Finances

by

As September rolls around and school begins, no matter what age you are, it always feels like it is the beginning of a new year. It’s also a good time to review your finances and make any changes before the end of the year. Here are a few year-end things to consider:

• College Planning – Make sure to fund your 529 plan before year end. You can deduct up to $10,000 if married or $5,000 if single on your New York State tax return. Even if you will need the money to pay college tuition in January, you can fund the 529 plan, get the deduction, and then withdraw it to pay the tuition. Make sure you are funding the New York plan at NYSAVES.ORG. Go to NYSAVES.org to get started.

For those who have children in college or who will be starting college in 2019, you can complete the FAFSA forms beginning October 1st. If you looking for financial aid, schools often have limited resources so it’s best to get them done early.

• Retirement Plans – Are you fully funding your 401K, 403b and other work-related retirement plans? Review your current contributions to make sure you are getting the full benefit of the tax deduction and deferment that you can. In most cases you can fund $18,500 in 2018. If you are age 50 or older, you can add an additional $6,000 to your contributions.

• Tax Withholding – There has been much confusion regarding the new tax laws. With homeowners losing much of their property tax deductions starting this year, many may find that the lower tax rates are not having much of an impact. In fact, some taxpayers may actually have to pay more taxes than the prior year. Review your withholding and estimated taxes paid to date. If you need to make a change you can either pay an estimated tax payment or change your tax withholding. Now is a good time to review this with your accountant.

• Medicare Surcharge – If you are 65 or older and on Medicare, make sure to look at your income to see if you will be hit with higher Medicare Surcharges in the next year. IRMAA (Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amount) often is a big shock for many retirees each year. There are income limits that you should be aware of to help reduce this surcharge. Now is the time to look at your income and see how you can lessen the impact of IRMAA.

With tax deductions being reduced, now is the time to make sure you are taking full advantage of the available deductions you have. A “Back to School” review of the above areas can make sure your year-end planning goes smoothly!