BUFFALO (WBEN) - Erie County Legislator Joe Lorigo has drafted a letter to County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Commissioner of Health Dr. Gale Burstein, imploring the administration to help districts fund the costs of mandated COVID testing.
On Friday, a Buffalo News article indicated that Monroe and Onondaga Counties are helping schools absorb the required costs, as required by New York State for districts within yellow, orange or red zone-designated areas.
The letter states, "It is my personal belief that as Erie County leaders we need to be better partners with our school districts to ensure we can get kids back in school and keep them there safely. I am growing concerned that your administration does not share that goal."
"We should be leading in this area rather than telling these school districts and schools that they're on their own," said Lorigo in an interview with WBEN. "That was disappointing then, but then learning today that there are counties that have made testing in schools a priority, I'm even more disappointed because we should be making that a priority, and I want to know why we're not."
Last week, there was a back-and-forth between Poloncarz and local superintendents about testing responsibility.
"Erie County Provided more than $15 Million to school districts in Erie County to assist with costs," said Poloncarz. "That also was to be used for the costs associated with testing. We have a few school districts who say 'We're mad at Erie County.' Well, Erie County provided some of these districts millions or hundreds of thousands of dollars to assist them... I don't know how they spent their money. Hopefully they didn't just plug budget holes because if they did, shame on those school districts."
