MECHANICVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) – For many school is just a couple weeks away. Local school districts are working around the clock putting together their safe reopening plans.
Students of Mechanicville School will be fully back in the classroom unless they have medical exemptions.
“We are ready to go and our students would have been wearing masks to start the school year regardless,” said Mechanicville Superintendent Bruce Potter.
Superintendent Potter says they are following Governor Kathy Hochul’s mask mandate. He says they are committed to providing a safe and welcoming environment no matter what requirements are asked of them.
“These decisions are out of our hands and we are trying to do our absolute best to find middle ground for the future,” said he.
Members of the Mechanicville Board of Education met on Tuesday night to go over reopening plans for the fall. They wanted to have the opportunity to hear what parents had to say.
Potter says once the policies from NYS are fully released, they will provide families with context as to how they will be applied.
“The kids need to be back, they need to be with their friends, and they need to interact,” said Deb Derby.
Derby believes her grandkids should be given the choice to wearing a mask or not in school.
“I can see it on the bus, but I don’t think they should have to wear them in class. I just think it should be a parent’s choice though,” said Derby.
However Meghan Amann has mixed emotions about sending her daughter for the first time ever to school.
“We’re excited but also nervous about the first day. My daughter is excited but she also knows that if not everyone is wearing a mask then she’s probably not going to come,” said Amann.
Potter says they want nothing but transparency for their parents. However he says they still have some unanswered questions for the NYS Health Department regarding the mask mandate.
“We are wondering will there be a certain vaccination rate within a school building. We want to know what is the metric when schools can really turn to a sense of normalcy,” said he
The current reopening plan can be found on Mechanicville’s school website.
The school will be starting on September 8.
