Midland School Will Reopen Wednesday for In-Person Learning

After closing Midland School for Tuesday out of an “abundance of caution”, Rye schools will open Midland School Wednesday for in-person learning. The district has already contacted all who need to quarantine.

In a note to the Midland school community Tuesday afternoon, schools boss Eric Byrne notes there have been some COVID cases in local private sports programs and urged “It is critical that the school be informed if your student has been exposed to COVID-19 and/or has been notified by a private program or a local Department of Health that quarantine is necessary.”

The full community note follows:

“From: Eric Byrne
Date: Tue, Oct 13, 2020
Subject: Midland School Reopening Wednesday, October 14
To: Rye City School District Recipients

October 13, 2020

Dear Midland Families, Faculty and Staff,

Following up on last evening’s closure announcement, I am pleased to share that Midland School will reopen for in-person learning tomorrow, Wednesday, October 14. We will be following the Wednesday hybrid schedule for the day.

We continue to work closely with the Westchester County Department of Health (DOH) and, as always, the safety of our students and staff is our highest priority. The DOH is currently in the process of contacting all individuals who need to quarantine as a result of exposure to this case of COVID-19. The District has already contacted all of the families of students and faculty and staff members who need to quarantine. If you did not receive a call from a Contact Tracer or from the District, this means that based on the guidance received from the Department of Health, your student or you as a faculty or staff member did not meet their criteria.

I apologize for the late notice and inconvenience caused by closing Midland School for the day. As of late last night, we were still without critical information and made the decision to close out of an abundance of caution. While a single positive case may seem like it can be easily addressed and resolved, each situation is unique and presents its own challenges. Last night, our challenge was identifying contacts connected to organizations outside of the Rye schools who may have also been Midland and RCSD students. We do not make these decisions lightly and always err on the side of caution. Our inability to pivot to a remote school day was also related to the late timing of this situation. That will not be a problem moving forward.

There have been several positive COVID-19 cases among local youth sports programs that we have been made aware of by individual families. It is critical that the school be informed if your student has been exposed to COVID-19 and/or has been notified by a private program or a local Department of Health that quarantine is necessary. A student required to quarantine may not attend school in-person. Our Principals will work with families to be sure that the student has access to school and continues the learning process. If your student is required to quarantine, please notify the school nurse, Kate Tiedemann, and Principal Jim Boylan as soon as possible.

Please be assured that we will continue to do everything in our power to keep the Rye community safe. We look forward to reopening Midland School tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Eric Byrne, Ed.D.

Superintendent of Schools”