What will school look like in September?

LI school chiefs see more-normal fall term

What will the school environment look like in the fall? Newsday asked three local superintendents during a live webinar hosted Friday.

"Next September, I'm extremely optimistic," Brentwood Union Free School District Superintendent Richard Loeschner said, adding he believe most classes — especially those like physical education, arts and music — will return to pre-pandemic norms.

However, he said, masking and social distancing requirements "remain to be seen."

"We're planning to have every learner back in class," said Malverne School District Superintendent Lorna Lewis, former president of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. "We would not want to have remote learning in the fall, except for rare instances.

The trio of administrators cautioned that guidelines from the New York State Education Department and the State Department of Health may change between now and the first day of school. Read more and watch the replay of the webinar.

COVID-19 indicators remained at record lows in New York State, with the key metric of the seven-day average for positivity in test results now declining for 67 straight days, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Friday.

The number of new positives reported today: 34 in Nassau, 37 in Suffolk, 215 in New York City and 480 statewide.

The chart below shows the percentages of Long Islanders who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and those who have been fully vaccinated.

Search a map of new cases and view charts showing the latest local trends in vaccinations, testing, hospitalizations, deaths and more.

Feds: JetBlue workers stole COVID-19 relief funds

Three JetBlue Airways employees were among five people charged on Thursday with allegedly stealing more than $1 million in COVID-19 relief funds that were intended to help small businesses, prosecutors said.

Orlando Sanay, twins Keimi and Keily Nunez, Michael Pimentel Veloz and Fanny Plasencia were each charged with wire fraud based on false statements that they allegedly made in applications for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, or EIDL, according to a 48-page complaint unsealed on Thursday.

"The defendants brazenly lied and stole more than $1 million in taxpayer funds from a program designed to help small businesses and their employees who were struggling to stay afloat and make ends meet during the pandemic," said Mark Lesko, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District, which includes Long Island.

Read the full story by James T. Madore.

Experts: Masking policies in workplaces, businesses still fluid

To mask or not to mask? That is a vexing question.

Experts on the latest Newsday Live webinar Thursday said laws remain unclear on whether employers can sanction, ban or restrict employees based on if they've been vaccinated. But there do appear to be situations where wearing a mask remains required or may be the easiest or best course of action .

"Any time we're congregating around folks, it's safer to have a mask on than a mask off," said Dr. Lawrence Ferber, director of Behavioral Health & Central Intake Services for Catholic Health Services on Long Island.

Ferber and Gerald C. Waters Jr., partner at the labor and employment practice group Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone LLP, said no one should be shamed or bullied into wearing a mask in public spaces, though both agreed there are times when, even if you've been vaccinated, you might have to.

Read more and watch the replay of the webinar.

Plus: See updated mask policies for stores on Long Island.

Meet Newsday's Extraordinary Seniors

Gratitude. Kindness. Determination. Flexibility. These are some of the lessons Newsday’s Extraordinary Seniors have drawn from their final year of high school, a year of extraordinary challenges.

It would be a mistake to believe these are the only extraordinary high school seniors on Long Island. Each student graduating this year navigated tumult: the COVID-19 pandemic, national political conflict, a public reckoning over the structure of American society. Add to that hybrid, or completely remote education, unexpected school closures and diminished opportunities for extracurricular engagement.

Yet, these seniors epitomize the heart and grit many have brought to their endeavors this year. Read and watch their stories.

More to know

A Suffolk County judge sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for selling and possessing cocaine and heroin, while he faces other charges with his wife for falsifying a positive COVID-19 test to delay the trial, prosecutors said.

Federal student loan interest rates fell to a historic low in 2020 as a result of investors aggressively seeking the safety of federal debt as the pandemic unfolded. But federal student loans will be more expensive for 2021-22 school year.

Leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are set to commit at their summit to sharing at least 1 billion coronavirus shots with struggling countries around the world — half the doses coming from the U.S. and 100 million from the U.K.

The question of allowing any fans into Tokyo Olympic venues is still being debated with a decision unlikely to be announced before the end of the month.

News for you

Rent a cabana. Need to get away, but can't decide where to go? If you're a Nassau County resident, you can book a staycation with a 10-day cabana rental this summer at Nickerson Beach Park in Lido Beach. Nassau officials announced four available blocks for July and August, with each cabana able to accommodate up to 10 guests. Find out pricing and how to reserve one.

Plan your weekend: It's going to be a beautiful weekend, so why not enjoy one of many events going on around Long Island? From life-size dinosaurs to the return of the Long Island Pride celebration, here's some of the best picks for things to check out this weekend.

Check for ticks. Long Island's tick population has increased in recent years, according to experts, including one who says the pandemic has further allowed ticks to flourish. Find out how to avoid these bloodsucking bugs, which can carry Lyme disease and other illnesses. Meanwhile, actor Alec Baldwin, who has had Lyme disease, says his family lives "in fear of Lyme" and describes where he lives in Suffolk as "Coachella for ticks."

Ready to dine out? Our latest installment of restaurants to try this weekend brings us to Long Island's city by the bay, Glen Cove. See our picks

Plus: Whether you are ready to return to a movie theater or are looking for something new to stream at home, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s "In the Heights," a film adaptation of his pre-"Hamilton" Broadway hit, is out now.

Sign up for text messages to get the most important coronavirus news and information.

Commentary

As the pandemic retreats, we're left wondering what we lived through. Stephen Marche, author of "The Next Civil War," writes for The Washington Post: Eventually there will be studies, falsifiable theses with quantifiable results: COVID's effect on suicide rates, on divorce rates, on school participation, on mortality, on depression and anxiety, on economic output. But none of them will get it.

No study could ever capture the lived experience of the pandemic, its peculiar oppressive texture, the bracketing of time, the asterisk hovering over our lives. For the vast majority of the world, COVID remains a living hell. But as the mass death retreats from a few pockets, we, the blessed ones, can allow ourselves to assess. What is it that we just lived through? What are we coming out of?

Part of the problem in understanding the COVID period, other than the sheer mental fog it wreathed the world in, is that it was a double event: First, a monster arose and then time changed.

The monster spread through peripheral contact, through breathing the breath of others. The monster had no face, but otherwise it was like the monsters in the movies. Nobody needs to make a horror movie about the initial response to COVID. It's all there in "Jaws": The lurking death nobody wants to believe in, the contest between public health and economics, the debate around messaging ("You yell 'shark,' we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July"), the conflict between the expert class and the political class that results in the working class being eaten alive. Continue reading