Gov. Andrew Cuomo is requiring all schools to meet with parents in some way to discuss their reopening plans.

Cassadaga Valley Central School will do it virtually.

During this week’s CVCS school board meeting, Superintendent Chuck Leichner announced the school will host three Facebook Live meetings, which are open to the community. The first meeting will take place Thursday at 7 p.m. The second meeting will take place Tuesday at 11 a.m. and the third meeting will take place Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m.

Last week Cassadaga Valley was among the majority of schools in the state that submitted its plan to the governor’s office for approval. Its initial plan called for half of the students to be in class Mondays and Thursdays and the other half to be in class Tuesdays and Fridays. Wednesdays would be a virtual day for all students while the district focuses on a deep cleaning.

During Monday’s school board meeting, which was streamed on Zoom, a parent asked in the chat about the days of classes. Leichner commented that it is possible the school could switch the days of classes to Monday and Tuesday for half and Thursday and Friday for the other half.

Once the Facebook Live meetings are completed, Leicher said the school could change its plans after hearing from parents. “Right now school districts across state are faced with enormous challenges. We may have to rethink significant portions of the plan. We’re also expecting professional unions to respond as well. I’m expecting there will be change,” he said during Monday’s meeting.

Christopher Rusco, newly appointed middle and high school principal, said they have created a hybrid/blended master schedule. Under this schedule, the middle high school will be divided into four groups: red group, blue group, students with disabilities group, and total remote instruction group for families who choose full-remote instruction.

The middle school will be further divided into cohort groupings where students will remain stationary in single classrooms and teachers will rotate to them. “Common student groupings will increase school safety by reducing hallway traffic, cutting down overall student-to-student contact, and will also require fewer sanitization measures as the same students will remain in the similar classrooms. The sixth grade will be divided into two separate cohorts, while the seventh and eighth grades will have four cohorts each,” Rusco said in his report.

He went on to explain that the middle school plan won’t work for high schoolers. “High school schedules cannot be fully grouped into cohorts since these students are fulfilling individual graduation pathway requirements.

As a result, students in the same grade-level are not always taking the same course selections. However, students will be grouped together wherever possible to reduce hallway traffic. As set, this hybrid schedule will allow for a seamless transition back to full student capacity when the COVID-19 crisis subsides,” he said.

Because of the small physical size of the classrooms, most classrooms will only be permitted to hold between 8-14 student desks. “Plans are currently underway to remove all non-essential furniture and curricular items from classroom spaces so that student desks can be physically distanced at 6 feet apart,” Rusco said.

Josh Gilevski, the Sinclairville elementary school principal, said they have 409 students from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade.

He noted that scheduling, room locations and class lists have been a primary focus. “Teacher assignments have all been made and all teachers have been informed of where they will teach,” he said in his report. “Class lists will be out very soon.”