Yesterday (1/19), Glens Falls High and Middle Schools piloted school-based COVID testing as a pathway to safer resumption of classroom-based instruction. School nurses and staff members tested a randomized subset of in-person students, teachers, and staff members from each school. Of the 88 individuals tested yesterday, only one tested positive.
While not perfect, these encouraging results have helped inform our decision to allow for a return to hybrid/in-person learning for Grades 7-12 on Monday, January 25th. All Glens Falls winter season sports remain on pause until further notice. If new positive cases or quarantines spike, we could immediately revert to all-remote instruction. Families should prepare now for that scenario.
Monday is a “B” Day at both the MS and HS. Cohort M-Z is in-person at the High School, and the Blue cohort is in-person at the Middle School.
Additional subset rapid testing will be scheduled at the HS/MS Monday through Wednesday, January 25-27, in order to sample approximately 15 percent of returning student populations. All parents/guardians will be notified with an advance email if their child is selected for testing next week. Only students who have a parent-completed testing consent form on file will be considered for randomized selection.
Tomorrow (1/21), we will be testing students, faculty, and staff members at Kensington and Jackson Heights elementary schools, as previously scheduled. Testing is scheduled for Big Cross Elementary on Friday. Each subset represents 15 percent of the total hybrid/in-person universe of children and adults at each building.
We remain committed to daily disinfection/sanitization of our classrooms, along with a super strict adherence to hand-washing, 6+ feet of social distancing, and all-day mask-wearing. Please do your part to keep GF Nation strong!