The Buffalo Public School system, for the time being, intends to bring children back to their classrooms when they return from holiday break Jan. 3. But they are monitoring COVID trends, as children prepare to head home for an extended period.
Superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash, School Board President Louis Petrucci and school district Medical Director Dr. Dennis Kuo hosted an update in City Hall Wednesday on plans to bring kids back. They all agree, keeping the kids in their classrooms is in their best interest, and the best learning environment.
“We need to stay open. No question about it,” said Cash. “No one wants to go back to remote learning. If we learned anything over this past year, it’s that remote learning was a necessity. But it is not optimum, by any stretch of the imagination. Parents know that. Students know that. And certainly teachers know that.”
Cash and his staff are continuing to monitor developments, including the rise of the Omicron COVID variant as Delta cases decline. One more update was scheduled for Dec. 28.
Kuo is urging families to remain vigilant and continue the practices that were carried out within schools, including masks, vaccinations and boosters, and staying home when feeling ill. He says the school system’s protocols have worked thus far.
“We know that the virus is not being passed around in our schools,” Kuo said. “We know that because when we see cases, they pop up in different places. Sometimes we get reports of cases clustered with families, in which case we know there's household transmission. And then they stop. And so when all these cases pop up in different places, we know it's not being transmitted in schools, they're coming from outside.”
Cash has questions, however, about testing requirements to let kids back into school next month. Among his questions are how many kits will be made available, noting there are an estimated 31,000 students within Buffalo public schools and an additional 10,000 students within Buffalo charter schools.
“What does it mean to test everyone to make sure that they are negative coming back into school? We'll prepare to do whatever we're prepared to do. But my understanding is those will come to the county, the tests come to the county. So the real question is, what's the county prepared to do to get the test either to us and kids so that we can take them home tomorrow, or somehow have students be able to get them over the break?” Cash asked.
The availability of rapid tests from New York State will be one of the factors Cash weighs next week. He suggests the availability of enough staff to run schools will be another.
