North Colonie schools go remote
Students won’t return to buildings till after the first of the year
All grades at North Colonie Central School District will remain remote through winter break, school officials announced Monday.
The 5,700-student district is the largest in the region to shift fully to remote learning since the academic year began this fall. Its schools have seen a sharp rise in cases and school community members in quarantine in the past two weeks, which has led to a shortage of transportation staff.
North Colonie schools moved to remote learning on Dec. 8 through Dec. 17, but officials decided to keep students home through the end of the year due to the number of active cases and the number of students and staff members quarantined. Grades 7-12 have been learning virtually since Nov. 30.
“Please know that this is an incredibly difficult decision and it was made in consultation with the Albany County Department of Health,” Superintendent D. Joseph Corr wrote in a memo. “We know how important it is to have our students in school and we would love nothing more than to end the calendar year with them. Unfortunately, at this time, this is the only decision for the district due to staffing shortages. It is simply not possible for us to invite our students back with the number of individuals in quarantine.”
Students in the full-day selfcontained special education programs will remain in person through Wednesday, Dec. 23.
As of Monday, 84 students, teachers, and staff members in the district had tested positive for the virus since school started in September, according to the state’s COVID -19 report card.
The database suggests that more off-site teachers, staff, and students are testing positive than those in the in-person or hybrid programs. School officials say this data is incorrect due to a glitch in the dashboard that identifies people who were in a building at the time of their test or diagnosis as “remote” due to the district’s recent shift online.
“All of our cases are getting reported as remote students — same with our faculty and staff — but the dashboard is not that nuanced,” Deputy Superintendent Kathleen Skeals said at a virtual meeting with parents last week.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s microcluster strategy for the winter allows schools to stay open even as cases rise if districts randomly test a certain portion of their on-site populations.
Like other schools in the region, North Colonie has been working with the Albany County Health Department to set up rapid testing in school buildings if the area is declared a “microcluster” by the state. The district has 3,200 rapid tests on hand, enough to complete two rounds of testing.
Most schools are using BINAX test kits, which use a swab wiggled in the tip of the nose. Results are available within 15 minutes. The district is also partnering with the University at Albany to implement a pooled saliva testing program in school buildings.
For districts outside New York City, if a single school or sample size of 300 weekly tests generates nine or more positive cases, then the school will be required to close to in-person learning.
Saratoga, Schenectady and Albany counties narrowly missed the microcluster designation when the state shifted its formula to emphasize hospital capacity over infection rates.
But as districts wait for the red, orange, or yellow designations from the state, rising cases and widespread quarantines have created staffing shortages, which are exacerbated by a regional shortage of substitute teachers.
As infection rates soar to record levels in the Capital Region, more schools may be forced to close buildings before the designation is declared and testing can begin.
Other large suburban districts have seen an uptick in cases in the past few weeks and have already shifted older grades to a virtual model. Schools are reallocating their available teachers and staff to keep elementary schools open, recognizing there are significantly lower rates of infection among younger children.
Bethlehem, Averill Park, Guilderland and Niskayuna districts, which have each reported between 40 and 60 coronavirus cases this school year, are among those that have shifted middle and high school to remote learning through December.
“The cascading effect of the increasing COVID cases has created a significant strain on staffing, not only in classrooms but in student support areas and in transportation,” Bethlehem Superintendent Jody Monroe wrote in an email to families. “By allowing students in grades 6-12 to be learning from home, we are able to redirect staff support to other buildings to assist with daily in-person learning for K-5 students.”
Shenendehowa Central Schools, according to the most recently available data, has had 80 cases since school began, but schools are staying open for now. The district enrolls close to 10,000 students.
“We would move to remote when the state says that we must,” spokeswoman Kelly Defeciani said.
In Albany and Schenectady, most middle and high school students have been learning remotely since the beginning of the year, and officials have shut down individual classes when necessary. Albany city schools, which serve roughly 9,000 students, have had 73 cases since the beginning of the school year. The Schenectady district has reported 47 cases.