RED HOOK – Smoke and soot damage from a May 29 fire at Red Hook High School is keeping the school closed for the remainder of the school year. The school district announced the closure on Saturday, after receiving the results of air quality tests performed at the school on Friday.
“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,” a statement from the district said on Saturday. The district said they have been trying to avoid the closure, but the time needed for the remediation work does not permit the school to reopen this school year.
According to the district, a deeper analysis of air quality samples taken within the school on June 2 showed “five of the 13 areas tested had above-average levels of soot and char”. The school district is working with Advanced Disaster Recovery on remediation in advance of retesting air quality.
“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,” the statement said.
, has created issues regarding academics and orientation for the incoming freshman class of 2030.
The district website included the following information:
- Virtual learning will continue each day through the scheduled last day of school, June 16. There may be isolated exceptions in which a class needs to meet at 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 on Monday, June 8, but students should be prepared to take their exams as scheduled.
- Regents exams and finals scheduled to begin June 17 will also be at alternate locations. Students can expect that the schedule and locations will be communicated by the end of the week.
- Options for additional Regents review are being explored by the administration. More details will be forthcoming when they are solidified.
- The broad daily lunch distribution for high school students has been suspended due to minimal interest shown this past week. School lunches are still available to those who notify the district that they are interested on a given day; please contact the Food Services Department at or by calling 845-758-2241 ext. 38010 to coordinate pickup.
In addition to academic interests, the district is also seeking to support students’ emotional needs as much as possible. That includes not only the seniors who may be dismayed by this abrupt ending, but also our incoming Class of 2030 freshmen.
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