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MAY 22, 2020 - LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY
Dear Farmingdale Community Members,
This year’s School Budget Vote and Board of Education Trustee Elections will take place on June 9, 2020, exclusively by absentee ballot due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the next week, you will be receiving a postcard from the district with important information regarding the 2020 budget hearing date and time, absentee ballot voting, qualifications for eligible voters, and how to register to vote (if you are not already registered). Please be reminded that eligible voters must be registered to receive an absentee ballot. If you have not registered to vote there is still time to do so using the information provided below.
The Farmingdale School District encourages all members of the community to take an active role in the school budget vote and trustee election. As a result of the pandemic, many of our young adults— who would typically be in college during the school budget vote— are home and able to cast a ballot. If you have any college-age students in your home that have not registered to vote, please encourage them to register so that they too have the opportunity to vote.
Registering is easy and can be done online at https://voterreg.dmv.ny.gov/MotorVoter. All you need is a driver’s license, permit, or non-driver New York State issued ID card. Please note that this year there is no in-person registration process. The final day to register online is May 26, 2020, and we strongly encourage you to register as soon as possible to ensure that you receive an absentee ballot for the 2020 Farmingdale School Budget Vote and Trustee Elections on June 9, 2020.
This is a critical vote for our school district and an important time to make your voices heard. If you have any questions please feel free to contact the District Clerk at 516 434-5170.
May 20, 2020 - ROBOCALL TRANSCRIPT
Good Afternoon to My Farmingdale Family,
This is Paul Defendini and today is Wednesday, May 20th.
Several weeks ago, the Governor announced that schools across the State were directed to remain closed for the duration of the school year. Our remote learning plans have continued during this extended closure. As of yet, we do not have specific directives from the State regarding two questions that still need to be addressed at the local level. The first question is, what are we to do about Friday and Tuesday of the Memorial Day Weekend? The second question is, when is our last day of learning here in Farmingdale?
Our decisions about these questions are based on a number of factors. First and foremost, we need to ensure that the Farmingdale School District completes the number of school days required by the State. Failure to meet this requirement would result in a financial penalty. The second factor is to ensure that we provide enough time for us to conclude our instructional plans, and to submit and verify final grades for the current school year. And lastly, we as a district want to be respectful of the challenges that we, as a community, have all faced during this pandemic.
Therefore, the Farmingdale School District has amended its calendar as follows:
The district will continue with its remote learning plan on Friday, May 22nd, and on Tuesday, May 26th. These will be regular days of learning.
Monday, May 25th, which is Memorial Day, will be a day off for all students and district staff.
By adding these days to our calendar, and considering the loss of vacation days during the April Break, our new last day of school for all of our students and teachers is Monday, June 15th.
Your child’s principal will be sharing what our last few weeks of school will look like as we prepare to collect assignments and finalize grades.
It is vital that you understand that this local decision. It is possible that the State still could require all school districts in New York to amend their year-end plans. If at any point, our plan is required to change due to directives from the State, I will reach out to you with the revised plan.
The second part of this announcement pertains to our summer programs. We remain committed to providing virtual summer school environments for the high school, for our twelve-month special education program, and for our summer ENL programs at Saltzman East Memorial and Farmingdale High School. More information on these programs will be sent in the weeks to come.
You may have recently received news that the Farmingdale Youth Council will be canceling its summer recreation program for the first time in 70 years. We, as a school system, understand the factors at play and respect their decision. In-kind, we are also closing down all of our facilities to outside organizations, including any organized event that is scheduled inside of our buildings or on our district fields. This will give us the needed time to prepare these facilities for our anticipated opening in September 2020.
We are hoping to open our outdoor facilities, such as our tracks and fields, for general community use in the near future. We will continue to keep you updated as information and guidelines are provided to us from the State and Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
We are in the home stretch, we have only three more full weeks left to go. Let’s make them the best three weeks possible here in Farmingdale. Until next time, be safe and remember that we are all in this together.
May 14, 2020 - Virtual Learning Schedule English/Spanish
MAY 13, 2020 - ROBOCALL TRANSCRIPT
Hello to My Farmingdale Family,
This is Paul Defendini and today is May 13, 2020. It has been quite the week here in Farmingdale. A week filled with new information coming from Albany and new opportunities for us to rise to the occasion. We have announced some exciting plans for our year-end celebrations, with more news to come in the next week.Tonight I will be sharing a few important updates and some insights on dealing with the road ahead.
You are now well aware that the Governor, through a recent executive order, has closed down schools for the remainder of the 2019-2020 year. The question I am still receiving on a nearly daily basis is, what does that mean for us here in Farmingdale? When is our last day of school and what are we doing for the Memorial Day break? I continue to work to get you a definitive answer to that question. I know it is on everybody’s mind. I can assure you that it is on my mind as well. I promise you that an answer is forthcoming in the next few days.
Tomorrow, you will be receiving a text message from me with a link updating you on a change that we are making to our secondary instructional plan. In short, this most recent change, which will take effect on Monday, creates a more structured environment for our students and teachers. I have committed to you from the beginning of our closure that our goal was to learn and grow through our professional educational communities. We understand that many of our students, parents, and staff members have sought out a more structured environment. This next step will hopefully provide that desired structure.
Over the next few weeks, you will be receiving information about this year’s upcoming budget vote. The process will look very different than the prior year’s budget vote. Most notably, there is no in-person voting. Voting will happen through absentee ballots that will be mailed to all of our nearly 30,000 registered voters. We are also contending with a difficult economic time in our Nation’s history. We are taking all of this into account. Please carefully read the information that is being sent home. It is vital, more now than ever before, that we are an informed electorate. Your vote and the impact it has on the district’s annual budget determines many of the opportunities that are available to our students.
Lastly, the other day I received a piece of advice and it stayed with me since that time. It has helped, at least a little. It is very simple, “Give yourself a break.” We are all up to our eyeballs figuring out how to navigate this new reality. If someone else hasn’t already told you this then I will take the liberty to say it now, “YOU ARE DOING GREAT.” There are no perfect solutions or universal right decisions. Everybody’s reality is at the very least a little different, and navigating this time in our history is simply hard. Keep on doing what Daters do. We are the kind of people that roll up our sleeves and do the hard work, the heavy lifting. We don’t take the easy road. We don’t give up, ever. It is that shared value that defines us as Dalers and it is that shared value that will get us through this difficult time. And when all else fails, remember that staying together amidst all of these challenges will make us stronger on the other side. Stay safe Farmingdale and remember that we will get through this together.
APRIL 21, 2020 - ROBOCALL TRANSCRIPT
Good Evening to My Farmingdale Family,
This is Paul Defendini and today is April 21, 2020. Tonight’s message contains information pertaining to our continued closure, grading, the cancellation of Regents Exams and graduation pathways. You do not have to take notes. You will be receiving a transcript of this message in the next few minutes. Below is a link to supplemental information with all the pertinent details.
First, as you are likely aware, the Governor extended school closures across New York State through Friday, May 15th. We continue to be cautiously optimistic about our potential reopening in the 2019/20 school year.
As a reminder, yesterday was the first day of the fourth quarter for our secondary students. Grades for the third quarter will be posted in the student portal in the days to come. The grading scheme for the third quarter can be summed up as follows:
Grades were calculated by your child’s teacher through the last day that schools were open on Friday, March 13th.
Assignments and grades issued from March 16th through April 17th can only help your child’s grades.
Parents of children that failed a class will be contacted directly
Any parent with concerns over their child’s grade should reach out via email to the respective teacher
The grading structure for the fourth quarter is based on a “first do no harm” mindset. We understand that these are complicated times and circumstances are different for different families. This system was designed with this idea in mind. In its simplest form, the district will be using a banded numeric grading system for the fourth quarter. We have created four grades that our secondary students can receive.
One of the main reasons that we selected this numeric system is that it will keep our educational community accountable and engaged while providing our students with the benefits of a manageable workload. Our efforts in grading will be focused on participation and engagement. Later today, you will be receiving a document containing the details about the grading bands, about who is responsible for providing grades, about what we are doing if a child is failing a course and about how we are arriving at final grades.
Next, the June 2020 administration of the Regents Exams has been canceled by the New York State Education Department and the Board of Regents. Students in grades 8-12 who pass or have passed a Regents-level class and were scheduled to take (or re-take) the Regents exam this June will receive credit for the test. There is no requirement to make up the 2020 Regents exams in the future.
If a student failed a Regents exam or multiple Regents exams previously and passed the respective class(es), those students have been automatically registered to take the Regents this June. Since the exams were canceled, students will automatically get the Regents credit as long as they passed the course. The district is taking this action on behalf of all of our students.
Once more, you will be receiving information shortly that lays out all the details of this plan and responds to a number of Frequently Asked Questions. The information is comprehensive but important. I hope that you and your families continue to be well in this uncertain time and I look forward to our eventual return.
Click here to access the Dalers Learning at Home FAQ Parent Guide to Navigating the Remainder of the School Year