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FREWSBURG -- The Frewsburg Central School District is now shifting its focus during the COVID-19 pandemic to getting teachers and other school staff vaccinated.
On Thursday during the Frewsburg Central School District Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Shelly O'Boyle said district officials' focus has shifted to the vaccination now that teachers and other school personal, which includes board of education members, are eligible to be inoculated.
O'Boyle also discussed how she had a conversation with a CVS official about using the school building to vaccinate all employees who would like to receive the shot, which is not being mandated by district personnel. She said even though school personnel has been allowed to receive the vaccination since Jan. 11, it's been difficult to make an appointment to receive the vaccination.
"I don't know when that might happen," she said about CVS inoculating school personnel.
O'Boyle also said that district and county officials have reached an agreement for the middle-high school to be a vaccination hub for the entire Frewsburg/Carroll community. Later in the meeting, the board passed a resolution authorization to enter into a facility use agreement with the Chautauqua County Health Department.
"(The middle/high school) would be a pod for the Frewsburg community as a whole," she said.
Even though school district officials are now focused on getting people vaccinated, O'Boyle did discuss the testing plan if Chautauqua County becomes a yellow zone hot spot for COVID-19. If the county does get classified as a yellow zone, O'Boyle said district officials have two weeks to test 20% of the students.
She said the testing would be done in the new gym. She said the district's goal is to have a plan in place and to keep students in school as much as possible.
"Either way, the district has to be prepared to keep kids in school," she said.
During the meeting, O'Boyle also updated the board on the attendance rates for Robert H. Jackson Elementary School and the middle-high school. She said the absentee rate for the elementary school is 6-8%, which is about the same as last year. She added the middle/high school has an absentee rate of 17%, which is slightly higher than last year.
O'Boyle also told the board that the middle-high school has quite a number of students who have switched from remote learning during the first semester to in-person learning for the second semester. She said this put the number of students in some classes higher than the number of seats in a classroom. She added to handle having more students than seats in some classrooms, Zoom rooms have been created. She said students will rotate in and out of the Zoom room so all pupils are spending time in the classroom and in the Zoom room.