That may have been the principal running your child’s gym class while the phys ed teacher was in the science classroom.
Or that may have been your neighborhood school that closed because so many bus drivers called in sick.
It’s pandemic learning, Omicron style, where rising cases mean continued issues covering classrooms and securing enough bus drivers.
The post-holiday Covid-19 surge has been so intense that in just the first 10 days of January, one-third of the schools in Erie County reported more cases than in the first four months of the school year.
Among them were half of the public schools in the Williamsville and Orchard Park districts and one-third of Buffalo Public Schools, The Buffalo News found in an analysis of State Health Department data.
In Niagara County, seven of the 50 public schools reported more cases in early January than in the previous four months. Among them were three of the four schools in the Starpoint District.
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The most extreme jump was at Harvey Austin School on Sycamore Street in Buffalo, which reported 59 cases of Covid-19 from Jan. 1 to 10 – compared with only six cases from September to December.
With teachers testing positive, quarantined or home with sick family members, schools have been scrambling to keep classrooms covered. Children might see principals and even district office administrators in the classroom, all in an effort to keep the schools open.
"The first challenge really is a staffing issue," said Frontier Central Superintendent Christopher J. Swiatek. "Our instructional staff have been internally covering a lot of empty gaps, a lot of open sections."
Cases in Frontier more than doubled this month, compared to the total number of cases in the first four months of school. But the wave may be stabilizing, Swiatek said.
"We might have taken our biggest hit right now. Our numbers spiked significantly. We were about as close as we could get to shutting down one of our buildings temporarily," Swiatek said. "If the trend continues over the last two days throughout the week, I'm hoping we're able to pull it off."
Staff at home are keeping in touch with colleagues to keep their classrooms going, he said, while teachers in buildings are willing to cover classes when they can.
North Tonawanda was not so lucky this week. The district had planned to use several substitute bus drivers Monday because a handful of drivers were out. But then more drivers called in sick Sunday, and the district had to close schools, according to Superintendent Gregory J. Woytila. Doubling or tripling bus runs with children getting home late was not an option, he said.
"We had to punt yesterday, because there was no way we would have been able to figure it all out with who's coming back when and who can drive a big bus, who can drive a small bus," he said Tuesday. "We rerouted and everything went very smooth this morning and we’ll be fine the rest of the week."
He said it isn't the number of staff who are sick that is the problem, but the larger number who are close contacts and have to quarantine.
"Everybody’s in the same boat and we’ve been making do with teachers picking up extra classes, or reassigning people to cover classes," Woytila said.
North Tonawanda, like every school district, is "thin" on bus drivers and substitutes, he said. He called transportation the Achilles heel for school districts.
"I can cover a classroom, I'm a certified teacher, I can be in there or a noncertified person can cover the classroom," Swiatek said. "I can't drive the bus because I don't have a CDL."
Private schools in the county were hit just as hard, with three out of every 10 reporting more cases in those 10 days in January than in the previous four months.
Buffalo Seminary reported three Covid cases this school year through December – and then 31 cases in January. Sacred Heart Academy had 11 cases through December – and 77 in January.
Because schools are not required to report Covid cases to the state on days when classes are not in session, the numbers reported in early January include all the cases that were identified during winter break, along with those reported through Jan. 10.
Although schools are required to report Covid cases among students, teachers and staff to the State Health Department, most of those cases are transmitted in the community, not in the schools themselves, officials emphasize.
"I've yet to meet a school that says they have the perfect number of substitutes. All of them are scrambling. They have teachers covering, they have principals covering, they're combining classes sometimes," said Timothy D. Uhl, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Buffalo Diocese.
He said he had heard of only one Catholic school talking of going remote because of staffing shortages.
“But then the snow came and took care of that,” Uhl said.
“You kind of just take the punches when they come,” said Swiatek, but he added, “I’m kind of hoping after the April break we’ll see that breath of fresh air again coming back into our buildings, and we can open up the windows.”
