SALAMANCA — Students in the Salamanca City Central School District were expected to return to class today after learning remotely for more than a week due to an increase in coronavirus cases in the district.
During its regular meeting Tuesday, Board of Education members were informed that the number of positive cases and quarantines have dropped significantly since the district decided to transition to remote learning Nov. 5.
“The number of affected individuals peaked at 113 on Nov. 5,” said Deputy Superintendent Mark Beehler. “That was more than double the number of students or staff who tested positive or were quarantined in the previous week. That was alarming and cause for concern.”
As of Tuesday, Beehler said that number has dropped to 45 people. He said the district recently started posting the number of positive and quarantined individuals on the district website each Friday.
Moving forward, Beehler said the district will also provide staff and parents of students the number of new COVID cases per building or department daily for those who are impacted by the new quarantines.
“The goal is to ensure the community knows we’re not trying to hide any information,” he said. “We believe we can do a good job of making decisions to ensure the safety of everyone, but many times individuals have circumstances that they need to see the information for themselves.”
Beehler noted that in the data the number of quarantined individuals and positive individuals are separate counts and do not overlap but rather add up to a total number of affected persons.
Superintendent Robert Breidenstein said the district has held weekly testing clinics for unvaccinated employees since Nov. 3. He said keeping track of those who are and aren’t vaccinated, who tests positive and who needs to quarantine has been a tremendous quarantine and commended the staff members who have handled all the data.
During the board’s public comment section, board members Dale Colton, Barb Sande and Jessica Crouse reminded the public to stay vigilant, stay safe, check for symptoms of COVID and stay home if they aren’t feeling well.
Board member Brad Earley wondered if students who aren’t feeling well but have tested negative for COVID-19 should stay home until their health returns to 100% or come back to school even if they have a cold. Ray Haley, Security and Safety Coordinator, and Breidnestein both suggested anyone who feels unwell should stay home and can work with the district on what they need.
With COVID cases across the county still at a high level, board member Kerry John wondered why the district is bringing kids back to school even if the student and staff numbers are down.
Breidenstein said several factors played into transitioning to remote and now bringing students back, notably the number of staff members who had to be quarantined, including in the transportation department, and the lack of substitutes.
“We track each case and we’re still seeing the preponderance of cases and exposures happening outside of school,” he added. “The number of individuals who are positive appears to be significantly less vaccinated individuals.”
John also wondered why the staff was asked to come into the buildings to teach even though the students were asked to stay home. Breidenstein said a vast majority of staff requested to come into their rooms where all their supplies were because it made it easier to teach. He said others have poor or no internet access at home and could only teach remotely in the building.
“We all have to remember this is not the situation we all wanted. This situation was forced upon us and we’re trying to make the best of it,” John added. “Mistakes are going to happen every single day, but I think what we need to do as leadership is learn from it, improve on it and do better every day.”
