As the 2021 and 2022 school year is set to begin in Central New York, the Rome City School District has announced a massive change. Just announced, Staley Elementary School will be permanently closed.

According to a letter from the Rome City School District, after the most recent flooding, the school district has discovered several issues within the physical structure that make the building as an instructional facility no longer a wise decision:

We have known that there are ongoing concerns related to dampness in the crawl space, however, the recent flooding of the building has required us to bring in various experts to inspect the space as part of the cleaning process. While we feel that we can prepare the building for student use in the next week, what we cannot do is ensure that a repeat of the current situation will not happen again in the future."

As school is set to begin, the district plans to redistribute the Staley students and staff into the remaining six elementary schools. Much of this work is currently underway and families and staff should know by the end of this week where they will learn/work for the 2021-2022 school year.

MOST IMPORTANT NOTE- The Rome City School District will be delaying the official start date for all students, preK-12, until Monday, September 13th.

I understand that this will create inconvenience for many members of our community, however, the students, families, and staff of Staley need our support in making this transition work as quickly and efficiently as possible. With our goal to ensure that ALL students can learn in-person to start the year, delaying the start of the year for students is the best option, amongst many challenging options."

You can read the full plan online here.

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