Red Hook High School will remain closed through the end of the academic year

With great disappointment and empathy for our students, especially the Class of 2026, we must announce that Red Hook High School will remain closed through the end of the academic year. 
This is the outcome we have been working long hours each day for the past week to avoid. However, the latest results of air quality testing returned to the district Friday evening made evident it would be unavoidable, given the timeline of steps that must be now taken to fully remediate the damage done to the school by smoke and soot. 
It is our hope that by announcing this today, students and staff can fully prepare for the end of the year, knowing what to expect. 
We have already been planning for what this will mean, giving consideration not just to how instruction and testing will function, but also the emotional and wellness needs of our high school students, seniors especially. 
Possible alternative locations have been evaluated, including Bard College. However, no available location was suitable for the scope of accommodating our total number of students or class sizes. We want to extend a special thank you to Bard for being a great community partner to our district. In addition to eagerly offering space for our use, the college hosted our Senior Awards Night last week and has provided support. 

This is what can be shared so far: 

• Virtual learning will continue each day through the scheduled last day of school, June 16. There may be isolated exceptions for instances in which a class may need to meet in an alternate location to satisfy a requirement; in that rare case, students will be notified directly.
• This coming week’s Regents exams will be held at alternative locations and bus service will be provided. Those details are still being finalized and will be communicated Monday, but students should be prepared to take their exams as scheduled.
• We will also be holding other Regents exams and finals scheduled to begin June 17 at alternate locations. Students can expect that schedule and locations to be communicated by the end of the week.
• We are exploring options for additional Regents review. More details will be forthcoming when they are solidified.
• We are suspending our broad daily lunch distribution for high school students due to minimal interest shown this past week. School lunches are still available to those who notify the district they would be interested on a given day; please contact our Food Services Department at schoolmeals@rhcsd.org or by calling 845-758-2241 ext.38010 to coordinate pickup.

In addition to academic interests, we are also seeking to support students’ emotional needs, however possible. That includes not only our seniors who may be dismayed by this abrupt ending, but also our incoming Class of 2030 freshmen.  

What to know: 

• Our freshman orientation scheduled for Tuesday is, of course, postponed. However, eighth-grade students can expect to receive their 2026-27 class schedules at Linden Avenue Middle School this week to best plan for their freshman year. And, we will be scheduling an alternate orientation event at the high school for late August.
• Prom will be held as scheduled on June 13.
• Our Senior Walk Through June 16, followed immediately by our Senior BBQ, will be held as scheduled. More details of how that day will work will be communicated as the day approaches.
• We are planning a broad end of the year celebration for all grades to get together in person one more time, as students need an opportunity to officially say goodbye to 2025-26 together. Details of that gathering will also be communicated in the coming days.
• As has been the case, counselors are available at LAMS for any student who may need to talk. Either make an appointment through your counselor or drop-in.

Each of these steps have become necessary because deeper analysis of our air quality samples taken within the school June 2 showed five of the 13 areas tested had above-average levels of soot and char. Accordingly, the district’s cleaning partner, Advanced Disaster Recovery, will be escalating remediation measures in preparation of retesting all areas and we are engaging in further analysis of problem areas. 
These deeper results have also offered important information for evaluating which items located within the building may be able to be returned to students. More information will be forthcoming on how, and which, items may be retrieved. However, this is part of the larger remediation process and, in the interest of extreme caution, the district is being careful in these decisions. We thank students and staff for their understanding and patience. 
This is not the news we hoped we would be conveying as we awaited our air quality testing results, and we share in your disappointment that these measures must be taken. However, each decision since the May 29 fire has been made carefully and in consideration of the wellbeing of students and staff. We are grateful for how supportive of each other our school community has been in recent days, and for your flexibility and patience. We will continue to keep families apprised of all developments as this important work of finishing the school year successfully continues.