The Ithaca City School District voted unanimously on Tuesday to start the academic year fully-remote on September 14th.
That move also pushed back the first day of school from September 9th.
Superintendent Dr. Luvelle Brown presented his thoughts on why the school board should make the change during a virtual special voting session, citing complications with staffing and scheduling among many reasons.
“We will not open our buildings until they are safe and having our HVAC systems, our septic systems, everything operating as well as they’ve ever operated because that is what we promised our community that is something that we have to commit to and that is going to take us some additional time,” he said.
Dr. Brown added that every school district in the country is trying to acquire filters to have proper air filtration systems and, even though he thinks they could have them installed before school starts, he says it’s too risky.
He’s added that he has also heard a number of concerns from parents and the community.
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