To the Scarsdale Board of Education and Scarsdale Schools Administration:

We, the undersigned, believe the Board of Education (“BoE”) and the Scarsdale Union Free School District (“SUFSD”) Administration would significantly benefit from additional medical and healthcare guidance.

During the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, knowledge is critical and directly impacts decisions by the BoE, the administration, the teachers, the students, and parents. Utilizing the medical expertise within our community will benefit all stakeholders, will allow for the administration to focus on day-to-day decisions, and would streamline policies. The difficulties posed by the current pandemic are expected to be long-lasting and the risk of additive epidemics (e.g. drug use, depression) is real.

In light of the aforementioned, we respectfully recommend the following:

1. Immediate cessation of efforts to alter or eliminate Scarsdale Board of Education Policy 2230, which can be found here. Specifically, the subsection entitled “Chief Medical Officer and Medical Officers” should not be changed. Altering policy to reduce the breadth of medical guidance - especially in the middle of a pandemic - is ill-advised.
2. Creation of a medical advisory committee containing a variety of specialists (e.g. an epidemiologist, infectious disease specialist, emergency room doctor, SUFSD science teacher, and psychiatrist).

We recommend that an open call for new volunteers be issued for this committee. The committee, which will serve in advisory capacity, will help to address stakeholder concerns, will allow adherence to board bylaws, and will ease the burden on the BoE and SUFSD administration.

We do not recommend that this committee be tasked with day-to-day healthcare decisions, unless by special request, and its members will have no access to personally identifiable health information.

The Medical Advisory Committee will allow for the following:

1. Creating clear and concise healthcare communications
2. Assisting SUFSD in identifying critical healthcare resources and helping to facilitate in-kind donations from local charities
3. Facilitating peer-to-peer communications with the physicians of staff and students, as called for in BoE bylaws.
4. Developing a set of medical goals/metrics for spring 2021 and for the 2021-2022 school year
5. Recommending adjustments to current SUFSD healthcare policy and resources reflective of evidence-based medicine.

Thank you for your consideration.