Members of the Rensselaer City School District Community:
Our Spring recess begins at dismissal today. School will resume on Monday, 4/8. On that same day, we will have the opportunity to view the highly publicized solar eclipse.
As a district, we are committed to taking full advantage of this rare learning opportunity. We have planned an after school celebration to view, experience, and learn from this eclipse together for grades 3-12. Our goal is to make a lasting memory for anyone that chooses to participate. This event will include hamburgers and hotdogs provided by our Rensselaer Fire Department, snacks provided by our food service department, a table of resources from our Rensselaer Public Library, several learning stations and activities put on by our staff. We will provide additional late buses for students that need a ride home at the end. It certainly should be a memorable #fRAMily experience.
As our safety committee discussed the day, we have also adopted several actions to improve safety for the event. Our school will dismiss 45 minutes early on Monday, April 8 so that our elementary buses are not dropping kids off during the peak of the eclipse. There were concerns about students being dropped off in the midst of this event in the dark without supervision to ensure appropriate eye protection is utilized. There were larger concerns about buses being on the road with distracted drivers potentially looking up at the eclipse. We chose to avoid both of those situations by dismissing 45 minutes early. The district will also show some safety videos for our students and provide any participants with certified eclipse viewing glasses.
This early dismissal will allow our after school festivities to last from 2:30 to approximately 4:10pm which will be during the best parts of the eclipse. For any parents that intend to have your students participate, please fill out the VRES Permission Slip and the Release of Liability form if you haven’t already done so. This will help us plan for numbers and transportation. Thank you for your partnership in this memory!