BUFFALO, N.Y. — Many Erie County school districts have so called COVID-19 micro-clusters, as defined by New York State and announced on Monday.
Being in a "Yellow Zone" - as also designated by the state - means schools are going to be facing tough new testing requirements if they want students to attend class in-person.
Technically the schools don't have to curtail in-person learning if they are in a Yellow Zone; however, being able to meet the state requirements to stay open will be a tough burden.
To stay open, schools have to test 20 percent of students and staff every week. But as things stand, they don't have the tests, they don't have enough personnel to conduct them, and they have no legal authority to conduct them on school grounds.
Moreover, according to the head of the Erie County School Superintendents Association (whose district is in a Yellow Zone) the county health department has told the schools they're on their own.
"We been notified by the Erie County Health Department that we should not expect any significant help from them. They don't have the capacity to help us," said Hamburg Superintendent of Schools Michael Cornell.
When asked about whether the inability of schools to be able to conduct the tests as mandated by the state will amount to a defacto shut down, Cornell replied, "I think it's kind of early to exactly handicap that probability, but at the same time there needs to be a significant amount of public health capacity brought to bear on behalf of schools in order for us to meet the requirements. And we don't have any public health capacity to speak of."
Cornell also told 2 On Your Side that in anticipation of the designation he attempted to reach out to private labs to see if they could help conduct the testing, but found none who could.
Even if they were willing, Cornell said school districts facing budget cuts from the state would be hard pressed to be able to pick up the thousands of dollars per week it would cost.
Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday indicated the state would be sending rapid testing kits to Western New York schools and according to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, the state is prepared to relax current laws in order to give school nurses the authority to administer tests. But even there, Cornell said it would a hard hill to climb.
"We don't have the additional personnel to give those tests," Cornell said. "Every school based nurse, not only in Hamburg, but in all of Western New York, has maxed out their capacity to serve the students and staff in our buildings."
If there has been one consistency in the state's policy in dealing with COVID-19, it's been the inconsistency in its reasoning for shutting down certain things and not others. Requiring testing at schools may be another example of this.
Cornell noted that schools have not been associated with COVID-19 outbreaks and the infection rate within his district buildings is one-fortieth the infection rate in Erie County.
"Our schools are safe," he said. "It does appear inconsistent to close the places that seem to be the safest places with the least spread of the virus."
