The governor has called out school districts in St. Lawrence County and across the state that have not submitted a plan for in-person learning for the coming academic year, but local officials say he is wrong.

View updated story here.

The list of St. Lawrence County school districts that have not submitted a plan as of Monday, Aug. 10, according to the governor's office, includes Canton, Hammond, Heuvelton, Lisbon, Massena and Potsdam.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo declared a Friday, Aug. 14 deadline for school districts that have not submitted the state-ordered plans.

Currently, 107 school districts statewide have not submitted a plan for in-person learning. Districts that fail to meet the Friday deadline will be unable to provide in-person learning this year, Cuomo said.

The state continues to review plans based on set criteria. Districts that are found to be out of compliance will get a letter from the State Department of Health today and a follow-up call naming the sections of their plans that are deficient, in which case they will have until Friday to amend their plan.

"There are 107 school districts that have not submitted their plan - for those 107 school districts, how they didn't submit a plan is beyond me. If they don't submit a plan by this Friday, they can't open," Governor Cuomo said.

"The main arbiter here of whether a school district has an intelligent plan to reopen and whether people have confidence in that district's plan: It's going to be the parents and it's going to be the teachers, and that requires discussion, and that's going to be a dialogue. Parents don't have to send their child. The parents are responsible for the health and safety of the child, and they're not going to send the child if they don't believe the plan makes sense. A teacher is not going to come back into the classroom if they think the classroom is not safe, and that's right. The school district has to have that dialogue by the 21st to fully comply with our rules."

The Governor said districts must complete the three to five public sessions with parents and teachers and post their plans for remote learning, testing and tracing on their website by Aug. 21 to be in compliance with standards established by the state.

Canton Central School officials responded to the news and stated they have filed the appropriate paperwork.

“The press is reporting some 100 schools that did not submit reopening plans on time. Canton has made the list,” CCS Superintendent Ron Burke said on the district Facebook page.

His statement is as follows:

“I have a confirmation email from SED dated July 31 at 12:34 PM that our plan was accepted and approved. This was the first step in the process.

“The second step was to submit the plan to DOH. I did this as well. The DOH form asked for the plan to be attached. When attempted, the form provided an error message that the file was too large. In the description of the plan, I provided the link to our website where the plan is housed.

“In reviewing the email letter sent today by the DOH, there may be a second possible error that caused us to be flagged. There is a separate attestation form for businesses to affirm that they will abide by the DOH regulations. I did not complete this form.

“I have resubmitted to DOH the one that I know I did. This time, I explained why the plan was not attached. I also completed the Business Affirmation form and have confirmation that this has been received.

“I have already spoken with staff at the DOH who stated they are being inundated with these calls. They could not easily tell why Canton was flagged and will get back in touch.

“Please feel free to reach out to me with any concerns.”