To test, or to go all virtual?
That is the question many superintendents are asking today, after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo designated most of Erie County a yellow zone because of rising coronavirus infections.
In a yellow zone, schools may stay open for in-person learning if they conduct weekly Covid-19 tests of 20% of their students and staff.
Some schools have already announced a shift to all-virtual learning, in light of the yellow zone and rising Covid-19 cases. Others are surveying parents to see if they will consent to their children being tested at school.
In the Kenmore-Town of Tonawanda district, second through fifth graders are to return to school Monday, after learning at home since September. If they came back, the district would have to administer 860 tests per week.
Ken-Ton Superintendent Sabatino Cimato said the district has not deemed it impossible, but the number is “staggering.”
"If we can fulfill this testing, we're going to," Cimato told his school board on Tuesday. But he added, "There is not one district in this area that has figured out how to fulfill this testing."
He estimated testing could cost the district $10,000 a week. And he said there’s a good chance the district must halt returning students to in-person learning because of the testing.
In Buffalo Public Schools, where all 32,000 students have been learning fully remote since September, plans were underway to return roughly 5,000 of the most vulnerable kids to in-person learning as soon as next week, as part of a phase-in strategy.
But the rising infection rate and the yellow zone label placed on the county has Buffalo backing away from that timetable.
Superintendent Kriner Cash has told school principals they should be prepared to reopen if the metrics improve. But at this point, he doesn’t see Buffalo schools opening in person “anytime soon.”
“I don’t see us starting, certainly not before Thanksgiving,” Cash said. “At this point, we could be looking at past December break before we even know when we can start.”
In Broome County, which was designated a yellow zone Oct. 6, two superintendents said they are conducting the required number of tests at a minimal cost, and keeping their schools open. Students in the Binghamton and Union-Endicott districts whose parents won't agree to the testing are allowed to attend classes there.
Before school districts decide their next steps, they’re waiting to hear back from the state on two key issues, said David O’Rourke, superintendent for Erie 2 Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES.
One is when testing is expected to begin, he said. Schools also want to know what happens if a student or parent does not wish to be tested, O’Rourke said.
“We’re looking for written guidance from the state on that,” O’Rourke said. “I think there’s hope from schools that some of this gets clarified as the state has moved to larger populations in yellow zones this week.”
In Grand Island, the school district would pivot to fully remote learning if it determines it is impossible to comply with new testing requirements, said Brian Graham, the superintendent.
“We definitely need further guidance and, in addition to the guidance, we would need flexibility,” Graham said.
For example, he said, maybe testing can be something less than 20% – that’s 500 to 600 people a week in Grand Island – or stretched over a longer period of time to ease the staffing burden.
And if the county Health Department can’t help the district with testing, Graham is looking into whether another agency or organization can – as long as it doesn’t stretch the budget too thin. The state already is withholding 20% of school aid as it is, Graham said.
West Seneca, which had been all-virtual since the start of the school year, brought back about 100 special education students Monday. The district, like others, is still looking for information about testing.
"We don't have any tests right now. Frankly, I don't know if we will have them for a while," Superintendent Matthew Bystrak told the school board on Tuesday.
He said the district would not test any students without first obtaining parental consent.
School Covid-19 cases rising
Meanwhile, the number of positive cases rising in Erie County is being reflected in the schools.
The latest numbers available, for Tuesday, show that school districts in Erie and Niagara counties had reported 261 on-site cases since the start of the school year in September. That number is double than what it was eight days ago. Districts and county officials have said most of the cases in schools are related to community spread, and not transmission in school.
Frontier Central announced Tuesday it would start fully remote classes Thursday. Cheektowaga Central is going all virtual starting Monday, and St. Gregory the Great in Amherst announced students will be learning at home Monday and Tuesday while faculty and staff plan for remote learning.
Cheektowaga and Frontier said they are closing their buildings to students because of the number of absences and quarantines.
Frontier Central was close to going all-remote before the yellow zone designation, Superintendent Richard Hughes said.
The last straw came when he was in a virtual meeting Tuesday talking with other superintendents about how they might comply with the testing requirements. That's when his secretary brought in the list of Transportation Department employees, including bus drivers, who had to quarantine.
"Our staff is just bare thin at this point," Hughes said.
