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Sherman School Board Reviews COVID Plans

Sherman Superintendent Michael Ginestre is pictured. Submitted photo

SHERMAN — Board of education members at Sherman Central School are considering the same question as other boards in the area: how can the district remain open if it is designated as a yellow zone?

“We are looking at what it means to be a yellow zone, with the goal of staying open,” said Sherman Superintendent Michael Ginestre.

When a district is designated as a yellow zone, it is required to test 20% of students, teachers and staff, randomly, on a weekly basis. Any district that could not do the testing would be required to go to remote instruction for all students or be subject to loss of state aid.

Ginestre emphasized that Sherman has not had a single person test positive among the students or staff.

“I’ve been super proud of the fact that we are a district that screens every person, every day. No one slips through,” he said. “We are really being diligent with our health screening, every day. Any symptom that is presented at the front door gets sent home.”

Nonetheless, he said, the increase of COVID-19 cases in the county is alarming.

“It seems like we are in the middle of a wall that keeps closing in on us,” he said.

Because of this, the district is in the process of applying to be a test site, “just in case we turn to yellow.” Applying to become a test site is the easy part, Ginestre said. “The logistics are the hard part,” he said. “We’d have to train staff to do the testing in full PPE.”

Additionally, parents would have to sign off on having their children tested, Ginestre said. If a parent does not give permission, then the student cannot be permitted to physically attend classes in the building, he said.

Ginestre told board members he is still hoping the district can avoid being designated as a yellow zone.

“This is my message to students, staff and families. We need to be as diligent as ever in our mask wearing, in our PPE, and in social distancing because we really need to keep in person instruction going,” he said.

Ginestre told the board that “there’s no clear-cut direction as to who would pay for rapid testing or how this would roll out.”

He noted that the district has already spent more than $90,000 in additional items, such as PPE just to open the school in September. “If we have to pay for testing in any manner, we cannot absorb the cost,” he said.

In response to a question from board president Brian Bates, Ginestre said he believes many schools in neighboring Erie County will be forced to close because of the surge in positive COVID test results.

“It is skyrocketing there and they are losing staff by the droves,” he said. “I believe you will see a lot of closures.”

Ginestre also reviewed the impact that the pandemic is having on the district’s budget. A letter which was sent to districts by the state Education Department, that transportation costs incurred by districts during the period of time schools were required to go remote — March through June — would not be eligible for reimbursement.

According to the state Education Department, Ginestre said, transportation aid is based on transporting pupils to and from school.

“We will not be reimbursed because we were not carrying students,” he said.

Ginestre said the district did incur transportation costs by fulfilling the state mandate to supply meals to the students.

“If we have to shut down because of COVID, I don’t think we can deliver meals again because we are not getting our aid on these costs,” he said.

He noted that some legislators are trying to revise the state law regarding transporation aid.

However, Ginestre said, he is not too hopeful about being reimbursed for costs incurred by the pandemic.

“I’m not optimistic and we are seeing more and more promises being made that aren’t being kept,” he said.

Ginestre told board members that the district has lost $43,435 in general aid for the month of November, as well as the $75,634 in anticipated transportation aid. Ginestre reminded board members that the district had already decreased spending by $139,000 before the pandemic, and “the 20% cut in state aid really hurts districts like Sherman that depend heavily on state aid.”

With all this in mind, Ginestre said, the district is in a tenuous position.

“You can understand why we are all getting nervous,” he said. “If more mandates come along, it will be hard to say ‘we should just do this’ and hope we get reimbursed later,” he said.

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