BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) Buffalo School Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash and members of the School Board had a lengthy discussion about Covid rates in schools Wednesday night.
"We're seeing rising Covid rates and rising hospitalization rates, which is alarming, especially In two districts, Lovejoy and South Buffalo," said school board member Larry Scott.
Buffalo Public Schools have had 806 Covid cases since the start of school in September. That number includes 607 students and 199 adults.
Scott, however, said it was made clear, based on data from the Erie County Department of Health, that most of the cases, if not all, are cases contracted in the community, not in the schools. "We're not finding much transmission, if any at all, of Covid-19, in school," he said.
"Although we're concerned and we had a discussion about the elevated rates,
we are sticking to in-person learning at this time. Our students need to be in school." Vaccination, he said is the key going forward.
"We need our families to get their kids vaccinated so we can keep kids in school, in-person, and keep people safe in our community."
Scott raised the idea of implementing a test to stay strategy, to limit the number of kids in quarantine when there is a positive exposure. "First of all, it should be known that if you are vaccinated, you don't have to quarantine it's determined you are a close contact. But we saw numbers from Erie County. The number of students who have been in quarantine and the very few who have been found to be positive when placed in quarantine."
Scott believes that many kids, are being placed in quarantine and are sitting at home, after a year of interrupted learning. "They are sitting at home and missing school and most if not all of those kids are not testing positive for Covid. To me, the current process of quarantining close contacts is not evidence-based and not best for our kids at this time. We should be strongly considering a test to stay model that is evidence-based. I was happy to hear that our medical team is looking at this and considering it for Buffalo Public Schools. We need the Erie County Department of Health to get on board and help support the change," he added.
In addition, the at-Large Board member thinks close contact determination needs to be reviewed. "Right now if you're in a cafeteria, with a mask off,
and you're within 6 feet, you're considered a close contact." Scott thinks that is arbitrary. "That made sense last year when we had reduced capacity.,
and did not have a vaccine. Now, when you walk into a cafeteria, there are hundreds of kids and I don't think there's much difference between 3 feet or 6 feet. So we're unnecessarily putting kids in quarantine and it's not evidence-based."
