Students in Chappaqua are hours away from the end of the district's longest summer vacation ever, with students returning Thursday and teachers back in the building Tuesday.

Chappaqua schools are among one of the first to start a hybrid learning model later this week.

Miriam Longobardi, a fifth grade teacher at Robert E. Bell Middel School says everyone is feeling "very apprehensive" as they put final changes on their classrooms.

"We have to decide which visuals we can have and which will stay. Because of some of the cleaners being used, it stains paper, certain things come off the walls," says Longobardi.

Longobardi says desks and chairs will be 6 feet apart and that furniture is preset so that teachers aren't allowed to move it.

Parents are also taking extra precautions this year. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Sandra Kesh provided some insight into what parents should do if their child gets exposed to COVID-19.

"What we know is that the spread remains most commonly through droplets contact, prolonged close contact, so I think most parents will have to figure out a way to use masks within the home and still be able to provide the care that their children need," says Kesh, the deputy director of Westmed Medical Group.

Kesh says if someone in the house has a pre-existing condition or a compromised immune system, that its important parents reinforce safety precaution with their kids.

As far as still having play dates with friends, Kesh says, "Ideally you would have it with a group of kids that you know that they have been doing all the right things and their families have been doing all the right things. Make sure that they're relatively small play dates. You don't want a large group of kids."

Kesh also recommends families get their flu vaccination.