Closeup of Mr. Rich in an office

Superintendent Jeremy Rich is asking parents for help transporting their students to school beginning Tuesday, Dec. 14. 

His request is in response to an outbreak of COVID that has closed  the Birnie Bus terminal in Herkimer. Birnie transports all of Central Valley's Mohawk and Ilion village runs.

He explains the situation in this video. Watch his video here.

Rather than close school down and move to virtual, Mr. Rich has asked the community to become part of the solution to this huge problem. The district will only transport students on its own buses - Bus runs 4, 5, 9, 11 and special education runs. All other students will need to walk to school, ride with parents or friends, or drive themselves. The district will transport BOCES and VP-Tech students to and from their programs only from the CVA campus.

If students are unable to get to school, they can connect virtually through Zoom.

"We understand and anticipate there may be issues connecting to Zoom classes," he said. 

"This will not be perfect," he said. "But we have already lived through the struggles of remote learning and I am hoping our community will give this a try in order to get a majority of students in front of their teachers in the classroom."

"I believe in our staff and I believe in our community and I believe we will find success in our struggle."