Valley Stream
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HERALD
AWARDS Page 8
V.S. business donates masks
iDA approves apt. tax breaks
Panel on higher education
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Vol. 31 No. 35
AUGUST 27 - SEPTEMBER 2, 2020
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V.S. schools gear up for reopening By PETER BElfioRE and MEliSSA KoENiG pbelfiore@Liherald.com
As the first day of school approaches, Valley Stream’s four school districts are presenting their reopening plans to parents while answering the public’s questions. Parents can keep their children at home to continue remote learning fulltime, or send them to school for in-person classes on certain days and athome learning on others.
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Christina Daly/Herald
from farm to stream Sandra Williams, of Rosedale, browsed the honey-based products of Miss Molly’s Honey Drippers, which has a stand at the Valley Stream farmers market, which is open each Thursday morning at the Hendrickson Park pool parking lot until November. Story, more photos, Page 5.
Gyms reopen in Valley Stream State mandates limited capacity, mask usage By PETER BElfioRE pbelfiore@liherald.com
K-Fit Boutique Gym was created five years ago in the garage of personal trainer Karina Melo’s Valley Stream home. After growing her clientele, and a few iterations of her business, two years ago this month she opened her own gym on South Franklin Avenue, across from the Valley Stream train station. Since March, Melo, like gym
owners across New York, has struggled to keep her business alive, after Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered gyms to close to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. “It’s been very difficult to stay afloat,” she said, sitting in her small, brightly lit studio last Sunday. But after five months during which she was forced to pivot to virtual and outdoor classes and launch a GoFundMe page to help her pay rent, on
Monday Melo welcomed back her first g roup of clients indoors. “We’re looking forward to getting our whole family back,” she said excitedly. Melo plans to reopen in phases, first with personal training sessions, before gradually introducing more indoor classes through Labor Day, when she anticipates a full reopening. Continued on page 3
Central High School District
show signs of Covid-19, how sports facilities will be used, the location of hand sanitizer stations and the district’s various social-distancing requirements. Virtually every aspect of school life — from busing, lunch and hallway use to restroom hand dryers — has been altered by the pandemic. Pe r h a p s m o s t important, Heidenreich announced that students and parents could switch between full-remote and hybrid learning models during the school year. Because of scheduling, however, students who want to switch from remote to hybrid will have to wait for the district to arrange for their return. Parents most often wondered what the hybrid school day would look like. Classes are to be shortened to 30 minutes, with breaks in between, Heidenreich said. “We do that because it’s not really healthy to sit in front of a computer screen for six and
ll four Valley Stream school districts are offering both full remote and hybrid in-classroom models of learning this fall.
Starting Aug. 18 and lasting three nights, Central High School District officials provided virtual PowerPoint presentations for parents, with each night dedicated to one of the district’s three high schools. Over a total of six hours of presentations, Schools Superintendent Dr. Bill Heidenreich and the principal of each high school outlined procedures such as where students should go if they
Continued on page 15