OBSERVER Photo by Anthony Dolce Seated is Fredonia school board President Brian Aldrich, left, and Dr. Bradley Zilliox, superintendent.

During his superintendent’s report at the Fredonia School Board of Education meeting earlier this month, Dr. Bradley Zilliox discussed the eventual possibility of reducing the social distance in classrooms to 3 feet, pending a handful of factors.

“I know that everybody has heard about the updated COVID-19 guidelines over the last week or so,” Zilliox said. “The main focus has been the possible reduction of social distancing from 6 feet to 3 feet in our classrooms. We continue to move forward cautiously while continuing to look for increased opportunities for our students.”

After spring break, when several students traveled elsewhere, the risk for COVID-19 spread was slightly higher than normal, which impacted Fredonia’s decision to lower the distancing requirements. In addition, Zilliox said the district also continues to monitor any of the COVID-19 variants that have been spreading in other parts of the world.

“We continue to monitor the potential ramifications of that travel over the next week or so,” Zilliox said. “We also continue to follow the news locally or nationally about COVID-19 variants that could cause an increase in cases.”

Due to the current spread rate in Chautauqua County, even if Fredonia wanted to reduce the distance from 6 feet to 3 feet at the middle or high school levels, they would not currently be able to do so.

The move to under 6 feet is also not possible without community feedback or a community forum, which Zilliox said is currently in the works.

In the more immediate future, distancing requirements for both physical education and music could be reduced from 12 feet to 6 feet. Because the distance would not be moving under 6 feet, community feedback or a forum would not be necessary.

“Both our (physical education) and music departments have requested to do so,” Zilliox said. “They both have a wide range of COVID-19 protocols in place to ensure they’re doing it as safely as possible during instruction.”

At the elementary level, there remain a small number of students on a wait list in the first grade level. To bring these students back, Dr. Zilliox said a couple desks would have to be added to each classroom, which would bring classroom distancing under six feet, meaning the community forum and feedback would be needed. Zilliox said this forum would happen via Zoom.