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Break, COVID-19 ‘not kind’ to Gowanda schools

Superintendent Dr. Robert Anderson

GOWANDA — Superintendent Dr. Robert Anderson gave an update on the reopening of the school to students in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. As it stood last week, 125 students or staff at Gowanda are isolated or in quarantine due to COVID-19, while three sports teams, including varsity football, volleyball, and modified football have been paused. The High School switched to remote learning on Friday, April 16 and Monday, April 19 for contact tracing.

“Spring break was not kind to us,” Anderson said. “It seems people have gotten COVID fatigue. With warm weather and the vaccine, people got loose with precautions and seemed to forget we’re in the middle of a worldwide pandemic.”

The current number of students and staff in quarantine track to two off site events that occurred over spring break, a majority of those coming from the middle and high schools. In addition to the issues with COVID-19, Wednesday programming at Gowanda was canceled on April 14 due to a staff shortage that was not COVID-19 related.

“With 125 people isolated or quarantined, it takes a while to do all that,” Anderson said. “These are not directly tied to our school. We have done quite well maintaining everybody’s safety. These are outside events that people bring to school, which we can’t control.”

As far as vaccine rollout in the Gowanda Central School district, as of April 20, 88 percent of the staff that responded to the anonymous survey either plan to be or have been vaccinated, while 70 percent have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, and 50 percent have been fully vaccinated.

“We’re moving in the direction to get most of our folks vaccinated,” Dr. Anderson said. “Thanks to the community, there have been many clinics that have popped up. Seneca Nation invited our community to get vaccinated there, and Valley Pharmacy as well for all their outreach.”

As the school continues to return grade levels, the most recent grade to return was grade seven, at the start of the week on Monday, April 19. Grades eight, 12, pre-k, and students K-4 who are considered tier three students have also already returned. Grade 11 is slated to return today, and the remainder of students K-4 are slated to return on May 3. Elementary students would return four days a week, with Wednesdays remaining remote.

“There have been some hurdles we’ve had to overcome to re-open,” Anderson said. “We’ve had issues with physical space with eating in the elementary school, but we’ve been able to accommodate for that. Transportation remains a little bit of an issue in both buildings because you can only fit so many students on the bus.”

As the CDC guidelines continue to change, the largest potential change is the space required for social distancing, which can move from six feet to three feet depending on community transmission rate. Because Erie and Cattaraugus counties are both designated as high transmission areas, only the Elementary School would be eligible to return to 3 feet distance. Other major changes to guidelines include the reduction of distance needed for meals, music, and physical education, which had previously been 12 feet but has been reduced to six. Should the guidelines allow, Anderson said the staff and community are ready to move to the 3 feet distancing.

“Three-quarters of our collective district staff would be comfortable if we could follow safety protocols moving to three feet,” Dr. Anderson said. “We surveyed parents as well, and they overwhelmingly want the three feet distancing.”

The Gowanda school board and Dr. Anderson continue to monitor guidelines from the CDC and Departments of Health, and will move forward based on the guidance they receive.

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