Local schools combat COVID-19 impacts

PLATTSBURGH | As Clinton County continues to combat a spike in COVID-19 cases, local school districts are bolstering their proactive efforts as they now join the health department's efforts with early exposure and quarantine notices. On Sept. 20, Clinton County Health Department said "Due to a significant uptick in school-related cases, CCHD will begin issuing quarantine orders for students, faculty, and staff involved directly through the schools", meaning families will no longer need to wait for a call from New York State contact tracers and the orders will be issued from schools directly. Bringing schools into the quarantine notification process will "eliminate the waiting period between school notification and state health department notification," officials said after parents across the county began experiencing a several-day wait for formal notification from the state. The move went into effect immediately after districts were notified of the change late Sept. 17 though officials are asking parents to be patient with schools as they navigate the new process. As classrooms are already getting quarantined across the county in response to the rise in community-spread student and staff cases, the advice by schools and health officials remains clear-stay home when sick and contact school nurses and personal healthcare providers for appropriate next steps before returning. At Beekmantown Central School District, administrators gathered Sept. 17 to discuss what they called "a sizable increase in positive COVID-19 cases" in the county and how they could proactively address potential district impacts. "First it should be noted that we take the responsibility of student safety very seriously. We are personally on the front lines ensuring our school is as safe as possible for students and staff during this pandemic," administrators said as word of the new quarantine process was announced. While the current BCSD rate of infection remains low-with less than half of one percent of staff and students testing positive so far this school year-administrators said the actual data shows schools there remain "far more safe than almost any other place in our community." Nonetheless, administrators said they discussed a number of new efforts to take effect immediately. Those efforts include more frequent visits to classrooms to ensure social distancing and appropriate mask-wearing; more frequent reminders of student safety rules; examining class schedules, spaces and size to apply more social distancing when possible and encouraging classrooms to eat snacks outside when possible. The district is also now looking to purchase more individual desks for classrooms and more picnic tables for outside and will also increase the already heightened sanitizing and cleaning efforts. Administrators are also considering staggering dismissal times for the middle and high schools and have moved gym classes outdoors weather permitting. All indoor assemblies have been put on pause as well. "We hope our current efforts coupled with these added interventions will keep our rates low as the county rate is expected to increase for some time," administrators said. "Once we see rates return to the low rates of the past few months, we will reduce these safety measures thus creating a more traditional 21st Century learning environment."

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Local schools combat COVID-19 impacts

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