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Differing county-level decisions about pandemic issues creates issues for schools

By Howard B. Owens

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One of the tricky issues for the Le Roy Central School District in navigating protocols during the age of COVID is that neighboring jurisdictions often have different requirements than present in Genesee County, Superintendent Merritt Holly informed the Board of Education on Tuesday.

For example, at the start of the new year, RIT will require every person who comes on campus for any event to show proof of vaccination.  That means every coach and athlete from Le Roy who participates in winter track and field will need to be vaccinated in order to compete in events at RIT, even though Le Roy doesn't have a vaccine requirement.

Any team that wins enough and reaches state championship athletic events will find every participant must be vaccinated to compete.

A memo Holly provided to school board members provides a timeline of shifting rules and guidance as knowledge of the pandemic has evolved and health leaders have sought to provide the best guidance as possible.

That has sometimes created confusion, Holly acknowledged. 

"One piece of thought, again, schools from county to county, interpretations of what this course is, this space, this contact tracing, so on so forth, can be different," Holly said. "Therefore, it can cause issues, equity issues, questions of why. But I think the bottom line is the data should then show are these measures working to keep us in school."

The briefing, Holly said, was to enable board members to get a complete picture of what is going on so they can come to the board's December meeting with any questions they might have at that point.

To read the full memo, click here (pdf).

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