Archived - Messages/Updates
September 13, 2021
Dear Somers Families,
It is with a heavy heart that I am writing to tell you that Christine Camarra, one of our Somers Intermediate School teachers, passed away this morning. Christine’s husband, George, also teaches at SIS. Our staff and students have rallied around the Camarra family over the last few years as Christine battled illness.
Our mental health teams are offering support to staff and students in need. Please observe your child closely over the next several days and weeks to watch for signs of distress, which may indicate a need for additional support and guidance. If you feel that your child or family needs some assistance, please contact us and we will do everything we can to help you. Please click here for information to help you support your child in times of grief and loss.
We know you join us in our grief and sympathy for the Camarra family.
September 9, 2021
Dear Somers Families,
We continue to have challenges with our busing routes and times. The shortage of bus drivers is having a big impact on our transportation services. Over the weekend we consolidated a number of routes and are still exploring other routing options. Our primary goal is to get all students to school on time. As of today, at least four buses were still arriving late at Primrose and SIS. I anticipate that as drivers become more familiar with the new routes, they will be completed more quickly.
We will also be improving communications with parents when a bus is running behind schedule. Starting tomorrow, if a bus is running more than 10 minutes late, parents will receive a direct message from the transportation department.
Some children are facing very long rides to and from school because of the route consolidation. For example, we used to have 13 buses at Primrose and now we are down to nine because there are not enough drivers. Parents are understandably frustrated. We are working hard to alleviate these long rides, yet until more bus drivers are hired by our bus company, Royal Coach, there will continue to be longer than normal bus routes.
To combat the driver shortage, we are doing what we can to help Royal Coach recruit new drivers. The company is currently offering a $2,000 signing bonus.
Again, our priority is to get students to school on time and we expect that to take place next week. We will continue to do everything in our power to improve the situation.
September 8, 2021
Dear Somers Families,
I hope you had a nice holiday weekend. The new bus pickup and drop off times have been uploaded into the Infinite Campus Parent Portal. In some cases, students have been assigned a new bus route.
The new bus information affects many of our district’s families, so please be sure to check your child’s bus route and times before school tomorrow morning.
If you meet your child at the bus stop, please be there 10 minutes before the scheduled pickup and drop-off times to expedite the process and keep the buses running on time.
We realize this change in routing is an inconvenience for some families. As we have mentioned, we are affected by the nationwide shortage of bus drivers and as a result have had to consolidate routes. We are working with the Royal Coach bus company to recruit bus drivers and hope to adjust these routes as more drivers are trained. You also have the option of driving your child to and from school if that fits your schedule better.
Thank you for your patience and flexibility.
September 1, 2021
Dear Somers Families,
It was with great joy that we welcomed students back to school today. It was wonderful to see all the children and hear the excited chatter. Below are a few important updates to the start of the school year.
Buses
As with any first day of school, some buses were running late, but I assure you that our transportation team is aware and is working hard to resolve any issues. We will have 27 brand new buses in our fleet this year. The “Here Comes the Bus” app will be activated once the technology is installed in the buses. We will send a message to all families once the app is active.
Notification protocol for COVID cases in school
If there is a positive COVID case in a school building, we will follow this protocol:
- Immediately notify any staff and students who need to quarantine
- Send a districtwide summary of cases delineated by school to all families at end of week
Quarantine guidelines
We are still waiting for the Department of Health to release guidelines on quarantining. In the meantime, we are following the CDC guidelines for exposure to COVID.
- Quarantine is required if an exposed individual was closer than three feet for 15 cumulative minutes in a day, masked or not.
- No quarantine is required if both individuals were wearing masks and were apart by three feet or more.
- No quarantine is required if an individual is fully vaccinated, regardless of masks or distance, unless they have COVID symptoms.
We will keep you updated as the situation evolves, and if we change our notification or quarantine protocols. I hope your children had a great first day at school. We can’t wait to see them again tomorrow.
August 31, 2021
Dear Somers Families,
On the eve of the first day of the 2021-22 school year, I want to welcome all Somers families and children back to school. While we still find ourselves battling the COVID pandemic, we are in a much better place than we were last August. We will employ the same layered strategies that we applied last spring to keep our schools in session. We also have an estimated 85%+ of faculty and staff who are vaccinated.
We know there will be unanticipated challenges that come our way and we are committed to being flexible and adaptable to the changing environment. I want to thank each family for your support and understanding as we start the school year. Please know that everyone here in the Somers Central School District is committed to your children and we thank you for partnering with us once again.
Tonight, both children and adults will go to sleep with nervous energy, anticipating the big day tomorrow. I know that if we rely on each other and our connection as a community, we will make this year a great one.
March 22, 2021
Westchester County has notified us that there will be a test of the Indian Point Energy Center sirens in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange Counties on Wednesday, March 24th, at approximately 10:30AM. Sometimes this siren is audible in Somers, but not always. The following is a message from Westchester County:
This sounding is only a test. If there were an emergency at the nuclear power plants, the sirens would be sounded continuously at full volume for 4 minutes, followed by an activation of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on radio and television stations to broadcast important information and instructions. The sirens are not a signal to evacuate. Rather, they are intended to alert the public to tune to this or another EAS radio or TV station for important information. The siren sounding is ONLY A TEST. No action by the public is necessary.
March 18, 2021
Dear Somers Families,
I want to provide some more information about the 40 Developmental Assets survey that students in grades six through 12 are taking this week. We have paused giving the anonymous survey while we share this information with you and give you another opportunity to opt your child out if your child has not yet taken the survey. We will finish giving the survey next week.
This survey is given in partnership with Somers Partners in Prevention and is part of the Drug Free Communities program sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control. Millions of students have taken this survey, including Somers students in 2011 and 2018. These anonymous data points are an important tool in district and community efforts to support students’ social, emotional, and physical wellness. An overview of the survey results is presented to the community by Partners in Prevention.
There are several sensitive topics addressed in the survey, including sex, drugs, and suicide. These are topics covered in the district’s health and counseling curriculum, which starts with age-appropriate content in fifth grade. In preparation for giving the survey, we met with our Drug Free Community committee, which includes social workers, counselors, and our student assistance counselor. We debated the inclusion of these difficult questions, and the prevailing sentiment was that to eliminate those questions would be an avoidance on our part of a potentially uncomfortable reality.
As a reminder, here is the letter and opt out form for the survey that went home last week from middle school principal Jeff Getman. An identical letter was sent to high school families from principal Mark Bayer.
Before giving the survey, teachers had the choice of playing a video of instructions or reading a script identical to the video, which included telling students they did not have to participate or answer any questions they did not want to. You can read that script here.
The link to the survey itself is here.
If your child has not yet taken the survey and you would like to opt out, please reach out to Mark Bayer at mbayer@somersschools.org or Jeff Getman at jgetman@somersschools.org.