It seems like the only sure thing about how school districts will be handling COVID-19 this school year is that the state will have far less to say about it.

In Dunkirk, another sure thing — at least, according to District Superintendent Mike Mansfield — is that the year will start in a few weeks with kids attending class in person, five days a week.

Those are the main points that came out of a presentation by Mansfield to the Dunkirk Board of Education at its meeting Tuesday.

He said he and his fellow school superintendents were a little taken aback that the New York state Department of Health is suddenly backing off on issuing statewide mandates, after the 2020-21 school year was full of them. “We’re trying to be organized and consistent throughout the counties” in COVID-19 response in schools, he said. “That’s a heavy lift.”

Locally, the next step is a meeting between superintendents in Erie and Chautauqua counties and their respective county Departments of Health.

Mansfield appears resolute in wanting students to return to Dunkirk schools five days a week. Referring to planning guidance he has received from the American Academy of Pediatrics, a federal government Return to School Roadmap, and the CDC’s July update regarding fully vaccinated people, he stated, “The impact of not being in school is detrimental to students.”

The superintendent acknowledged that mask-wearing could be a politically tricky issue. “We have to be talking about them and realize we are not going to please everybody with everything we do,” he said.

Although the CDC suggests masks for everyone, whether vaccinated or not, in school settings, there was no indication at Tuesday’s meeting that any decision on that has been made in Dunkirk.

Mansfield said he wants to get the district’s nurses, union representatives, and the director of facilities together in the next few days to discuss COVID-19 plans. He also asked the Board of Education to attend workshop meetings with him on Aug. 16, 23 and 30 so they can get updates on the planning.

The superintendent said information on COVID-19 plans should be sent to families in the district no later than Aug. 30. Board President David Damico said he wanted that information sent out as close to Aug. 30 as possible. “If we start putting things out now, it’ll probably change, and change, and change again,” he said.

Mansfield had a message for local gossips: “I would ask people, with social media the way it is, to be patient and to wait for us to tell them what we are doing.”

He concluded his talk by saying, again, “We are going to be back five days a week, in person.”

However, if medical issues pop up, whether in individuals or in a group of people, those people might have to go to remote learning, he acknowledged. Damico and Mansfield both expressed confidence in the district’s remote learning setup, noting it was heavily used and refined last year and could easily be brought back.