Weekend Updates From Long Beach Schools

The following are updates from the Long Beach Public Schools: 

Attachments:

• Modified Transportation Schedule

November 11th Superintendent's Message

We have been working on our bus schedule.  You will find the revised in-district bus schedule posted. Private & Parochial routs will begin running on Tuesday using the original schedule.

It is VERY IMPORTANT that students take the bus. Administrators will be at all the pickup and drop off points.  We will also have additional adults on every bus to ensure children get where they need to go safely.  The schools and the city are not able to handle a high volume of vehicular traffic safely.  Buses can travel slowly and safely through the city, and stay out of the way of repair trucks and emergency vehicles,  only as long as the number of cars are low.  The roads around schools are still filled with debris,, making it inadvisable for anyone to be parking and then walking to the front entrance of schols. We are asking the area around the schools be free of cars.

In addition to pickups on the barrier island, from Point Lookout through East Atlantic Beach, our new external bus schedule calls for pickup/drop off:
Eisenhower Park (East Meadow);  Ellsworth W. Allen Town Park (Heisser Ln and Motor Ave, Farmingdale);  Rockville Centre Recreation Center; Oceanside Jewish Center - 2860 Brower Avenue, Oceanside;  Freeport Police Department - 40 N. Ocean Ave (just north of Sunrise);  Stone Turtle Parking Lot - 4160 Austin Blvd. - Island Park;  Christopher Morley Park - 500 Searingtown Road, Roslyn;  Wantagh Park - King Rd just off of Merrick Road near the Wantagh Parkway;   Farmingdale HS Shelter (relocated from Levittown Shelter) only for those students at the shelter; NCC Shelter - only for those students at the shelter.  Times will be posted shortly.

For those families planning on driving their students to Long Beach:
Please do not drive through Long Beach - Use the following drop-off/pick-up sites:       
            From the Middle School buses depart at 8:30am
            From the Atlantic Beach Club buses depart at 8:30am
We have established an email for people wanting to support us through volunteer effort or donations.  The email address is sandy@lbeach.org  

Building Status

Please see my November 7th  messages for initial storm damage information at each site.

The  Transportation Depot will house a transportation command center, so that parents can call if there are any problems.  It will be manned in the morning during pickup and in the afternoon during dropoff.  We have all our pumps powered and working, so we will be able to refuel all our vehicles.

Lindell School, East School and the High School are now all powered by LIPA.  We are keeping the generators as backups on site. All the buildings have heat and potable water.  All will have hot water on Tuesday. We are completing the abatement necessitated by the flooding.  

Our restoration contractors are currently in the Lido Complex and we anticipate it being available for students on November 26, after the Thanksgiving break.

We anticipate that West School will be available sometime after the winter break.  The Blackheath Pre-K Center and the Administration building will be condemned.  We will relocate the Pre-K students  after the Thanksgiving Break.

* * *
Three school buildings in the Long Beach School District will be opened on Tuesday, November 13th: Lindell, East, and the High School. All students will be instructed in these buildings until after Thanksgiving.

Questions about start/end times, transportation schedules, and other school matters will be answered in a separate post in the news items below no later than Monday (possibly earlier). 

Parents, please fill out the following form so that we can locate all students and begin planning for transportation and other logistical needs. Student Location Form

Regular status updates from the Superintendent are listed below in the District News section. 

For more information, please call 516.897.2000 on Tuesday.If you are interested in making a donation or offering assistance, please email sandy@lbeach.org

November 9th 5 pm Q & A

What is the status of the school buildings?
On Tuesday, November 13th, the district will reopen Lindell, East, and the High School. The district expects to reopen Lido and the Middle School sometime after the Thanksgiving break. A detailed description of the impact of the storm on our buildings is described in the November 7th New link on the lbeach.org web site.

Where will my child(ren) go to school next Tuesday?
Three of our six buildings will be open. East and Lindell will function with a normal school day schedule (9 to 3:30) and a full day schedule. High School and Middle school students will be housed at the high school, for approximately two weeks, and also function on a 9:00 am to 3:30 pm schedule.  The district expects to reopen Lido and the Middle School sometime after the Thanksgiving break.  West School will be opened after the new year at the earliest.

East/West students will attend East.
Lindell/Lido students will attend Lindell.
MS and HS students will attend the HS.

Where will my child(ren) go to school on Monday, November 26th when the MS and Lido complex reopens?

The district expects to reopen Lido and the Middle School sometime after the Thanksgiving break. At that time, five of our six buildings will be open and functioning with a normal school day schedule. When this occurs

East/West students will attend East.
Lindell students will attend Lindell.
Lido students will attend Lido.
MS students will attend the MS.
HS students will attend the HS.

What about the Pre-Kindergarten program at Blackheath?
The pre-kindergarten program is suspended until after Thanksgiving, when we expect to reopen it in the Lido Complex, as a planned part of the school facilities improvement project.

Are the reopened buildings safe?
Absolutely. No building can be reopened until a safety determination can be made, and schools cannot open without power, heat, working fire alarms, and potable water. We have environmental consultants working closely with the District. Any restoration work will be completed before students occupy buildings.

Will transportation to school be offered?
Yes, there will be transportation routes for families who may be living within the district right now. There will also be key shuttle points identified that are out of the district for families who are not currently residing within the community. Specific bus route information will be posted on the lbeach.org website by Sunday, November 11th.

Will I be able to drop my child off at school?
We are strongly discouraging parents from driving children to school.  There are many emergency vehicles in the City and we do not want to interfere with their functioning.  Please use one of our drop off points.  There will be adult supervision at these locations.

What about start/end times for school and for transportation pickups and drop-offs?
All of these logistics are being worked out now, and will be announced on Sunday, November 11th on the district’s website and in other forms that may be available to us.

Will food be offered to students?
Lunch will be provided for free to students for the first two weeks back. We expect that full food service operations will be in place beginning November 26th.

Will there be any before/after care services for families?
We do not yet have any details on these services, but it is our hope that we coordinate aftercare services for families shortly.

Am I allowed to send my child(ren) to Long Beach Public Schools if I am currently residing outside the district?

Yes, of course, and we are making every accommodation to assist families to have their children come back to school here.

Should I consider enrolling my child(ren) in another school district?

That is a question best informed by your individual situation. If you have been displaced from the community and are currently domiciled out of the district, you are welcome to have your child(ren) return to school here. But you also have the legal right to register your child(ren) with the school district in which you currently reside. You can have Nassau BOCES assist you in waiving paperwork requirements such as immunization records that may have been lost.

It should also be remembered that it is our expectation that five of our six schools will be back online shortly after the Thanksgiving break and operating under a normal full day schedule. The option to enroll your child(ren) in another district should not be prompted by any misgivings over perceived limitations in length of the school day or the resources available to students. We will be fully functioning in 5 of 6 schools.

November 10, 5 pm Superintendent's Update November 10th Superintendent's Message

We have four teams competing in county athletic playoffs.  It has taken tremendous coordination to bring these groups of students together from diverse locations.  This is the issue we will face on Tuesday, when we begin classes.  We have located all our staff and 2500 of our students.  They are now all entered into our calling/email system with the additional contact information we have received by the web form and phone.  I want to thank everyone for their cooperation.  And a special thanks to the many people reaching out to our students, including the Franklin Square community.

We have been working on our bus schedule based on that information and hope to post it tomorrow.

It is VERY IMPORTANT that students take the bus.  We will have adults on every bus to ensure children get where they need to go safely.  The schools and the city are not able to handle a high volume of vehicular traffic safely.  Buses can travel slowly and safely through the city, and stay out of the way of repair trucks and emergency vehicles,  only as long as the number of cars are low.  The roads around schools are still filled with debris,, making it inadvisable for anyone to be parking and then walking to the front entrance of schools. We are asking the area around the schools be free of cars.

In addition to pickups on the barrier island, from Point Lookout through East Atlantic Beach, our draft schedule calls for pickup/drop off on Tuesday in East Meadow, Farmingdale, Garden City, Rockville Centre, Freeport, Oceanside, Roslyn, and Massapequa.

Our staff met on Friday, and we have worked on the transition to our temporary school structure.  Elementary students will have their own teachers, middle school classes their own teams, and high school students their classes.  School will operate for a full day, from 9 to 3:30, which will allow families to get to school bus stops together.

We have established an email for people wanting to support us through volunteer effort or donations.  The email address is sandy@lbeach.org  The generosity of numerous individuals is helping the district through this difficult time. We hope to soon be able to recognize the many individuals and businesses who have come forward to offer equipment, clothing, food, and numerous other resources. We are very grateful for the donations of clothes, but have accepted all we need at this point. We are trying to coordinate the support we are getting, so that our priority needs are met.

We have already had donations of school supplies for 2000 students and backpacks filled with school supplies for 1000 students. And our football team was fully equipped to compete in the playoffs.

To rebuild the schools we are looking for groups to "sponsor a classroom" (to rebuild first floor classrooms in the elementary and middle schools that were flooded), participate in a scholarship fund (for currently enrolled students who graduate from LBHS -- for students currently in PreK to 12), purchase library materials through Follett, sponsor classroom "leveled libraries", as well as financial support for our students and staff to rebuild.  We have a need to replace the stage at Lindell Elementary School, and our three elementary, a middle school and a high school gym floor. We have families who have been displaced from their homes.  The unusual need we have is support for families and staff who lost their cars in the flooding.  We would welcome opportunities for our older students, now across Long Island, to find student appropriate part-time employment while they are in school.

Building Status
Please see my November 7th  messages for initial storm damage information at each site.

Administration and communications.  We will be housing 897-2000 back in district by Tuesday.  Phones have been working at Lindell and the HS, and we have working phones and internet there.

The  Transportation Depot has a trailer for use by our dispatch team. We are running fiber and a generator to the site to power it and give it phones and  complete access to our network.

Lindell School  now has power, fire alarms,  and the ability to provide food.  Electricity is being powered by a generator and heat through a portable boiler.  We will be able to use the Auditorium, but not the stage. However, we had a setback today when the City of Long Beach sewage plant ran into electricity issues.   We have been told that this situation should be fixed shortly.  When the Board of Health was in to inspect last week we did not have hot water in the kitchen.  We do now.  They will be back to inspect on Tuesday.  Therefore, while we will be serving food, there will be no hot food preparation until we get approval.

East School  now has a  generator.  We have cleaned the building. The Gym will not be available for are use until the floor is repaired.  Like Lindell, there are issues again with the city sewage plant.  They expect these to be cleared up after LIPA makes repairs.  Heat will be supplied through a portable boiler which will be in the front of the building.  We are working on the electric system.  After putting the generator online, we have become aware of issues that need to be fixed before we can power up the entire school.

The High School has electricity.  We are working on the other systems.  Our biggest area of concern at the high school is our hot water system, which is fueled by natural gas.  We need this fully operational for cooking and for use in bathrooms. We will need to get Board of Health clearance. The athletic area will be closed for the time being.  The gym floor will require replacement.

The Lido Elementary School, Pre-K Center, and Middle School Complex were flooded, including the new library-media center and the gym areas.  There is no power, heat or fire alarms.  It has working sewage.  We are waiting for LIPA to restore power so that we can repair the boilers. Our restoration contractors are currently in the building and we anticipate it being available for students on November 26, after the Thanksgiving break.

West School is  uninhabitable. Our restoration has begun by our environmental consultants.  We anticipate that the facility will be available after the winter break.  There is no power, heat, fire alarms, or potable water. The Blackheath Pre-K Center will be condemned.  We will relocate the Pre-K students  after the Thanksgiving Break.


Nov 10 8 am November 3rd SAT or SAT Subject test rescheduled

The November 3rd SAT or SAT Subject test at LBHS has been rescheduled for December 15th. Any student who was already registered for the November 3rd SAT or SAT Subject Test is currently rescheduled to take the exam on December 15th at LBHS.  Educational Testing Services (ETS) will send you a confirmation email and postal letter confirming your rescheduled exam.  This December 15th date is ONLY for students who were already registered for the November 3rd exam.  Students currently registered for the December 1st SAT/SAT Subject Test are still registered for the December 1st exam.  Students who were originally scheduled for the November 3rd date can not take the SAT on December 1st.