Update: Scarsdale Schools to Close for Two More Weeks

On March 15, Governor Cuomo publicly announced the decision to close all public schools in New York City, Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau. The mandatory closing will start on Monday, March 16th, and in Westchester, it will be effective for two weeks. As for NYC, the goal is to reopen schools on April 20th, though the mayor warned that could be “overly optimistic”. The state has reported 732 cases as of last night.

Scarsdale will be off for two more weeks, closing through the end of March. What that will mean for testing, quarter grades, and final grades, is still unclear. 

Westchester is reported to have 196 corona cases. This morning at 8:30 AM, the county executive George Latimer held a conference call with the county superintendents to finalize the plan to close all Westchester school districts. He also announced a state of emergency in the county Monday afternoon. 

Today SHS teachers tried e-learning with their students through video lessons, ZOOM and even doing remote Quizlet live. E-learning is expected to continue the curriculum, and students are anxious to restart school to meet their friends and leave the house. “You can only relive the same day over and over again so many times before it gets boring,” remarked Emily Wang ‘23. “You can really only have so much time on your hands before [you’re] sick of being away from your friends.” It’s hard to imagine how teachers would give tests to students over the internet. “I needed this quarter to try to bring my grades up,” said an anonymous SHS student. Events like SAT testing and sports games have been canceled, and we can expect more cancellations as the situation gets worse. 

In New York City, officials are working to make sure healthcare is readily available and that children who rely on free school lunch for meals continue to receive food as needed. “Our goal is to slow the spread of the virus to a rate that the healthcare system can manage, and one of the ways to do that is to reduce density,” Governor Cuomo said. “…it needs to be done with these contingencies in mind so that children are not harmed and our hospitals aren’t understaffed – otherwise we cut off our nose to spite our face.” As of March 14, the city has reported 329 cases of COVID-19, and the governor has asked Trump for military help to help fight the virus.