JANET BURNS

jburns@antonmediagroup.com

Students and staff at Westbury Middle School had to transition to remote learning for the last two full weeks in March after an early-morning fire in the school’s basement on March 13.

No injuries were reported from the fire, which broke out shortly after 3:00 a.m. and caused significant smoke damage, and some water and electrical damage, at the Rockland Street school.

According to school officials, the basement fire also caused electrical problems that led to parts of the school being without power. The fire started in a basement utility room near an electrical junction box, and was contained to that room, but smoke damage was extensive in the school’s basement.

Thankfully, however, the entire Westbury Middle School community was able to spring into action right away, and, for better or worse, has experience that prepared them for the step of going remote.

Westbury Union Free School District Superintendent Dr. Tamira

A. DuPree Chase spoke to Nassau Illustrated News during the middle school’s second week of remote learning about how, all in all, the community’s emergency transition has been a heartening one so far.

“The pandemic prepared us for this,” explained Dr. Chase in a phone interview.

“During the pandemic, we made sure all our scholars had Chromebooks, chargers, and MiFi [mobile wifi] attached, so that they’d have access to learning.”

As a result, she said, “The students at Westbury Middle School transitioned to remote learning within two hours of our learning about fire. We let families know at around 5:30 a.m. on Monday, March 13, the students were ready on time, and we were able to start our day without a hitch.”

“Kudos to parents, teachers, school administration, and especially to students for knowing exactly what to do.”

The school and its community also made sure that Westbury Middle School scholars would have the option of getting breakfast and lunch delivered to them each day that the school was closed.

“We actually deployed our school buses, and met with our food service providers, and knocked on the door of every middle-schooler in the district, which is 1200 kids,” said Dr. Chase. “Some students refused, and some students accepted, which is perfectly fine. And we’ve tried to minimize any interruption to the academic day with the delivery.”

“What was also amazing was last week, maybe 36 hours after the incident, we called all of our middle-school parents together to update them about our status, and the parents were extremely understanding and supportive at that meeting. Several parents reached out to us right afterward asking if they could help distribute meals.”

“We didn’t ask them for help, but they volunteered because they believe in the notion that Westbury love is real love, and that’s exactly what they showed us.”

“We want our scholars back in the school, and they want to be back, but we do have extensive smoke and water damage,” Dr. Chase said last week. “We have service providers who are working double shifts, and we are very grateful that we have insurance.”

Meanwhile, she said, “We have not stopped the learning. Kids are engaged, their cameras are on, they’re participating in class. They’re also still participating and competing in sports after school at our campus or at other schools.”

“We are just so appreciative of the strong leadership in our school district, from the board of education to the principal at the middle school. Our facility staff has been second to none, and actually some of the security staff got on the bus to help deliver meals because the kids recognize them.”

“I could not be more grateful to lead such a staff.”