A few weeks ago, schools in Broome County had a decision to make: figure out how to test 20% of their students and teachers for Covid-19 every week or close the schools and shift to remote instruction.
Among the first schools in the state to find themselves in a yellow zone, they found there was no blueprint for setting up a Covid testing operation virtually overnight.
But they quickly figured out how to test students, and at minimal cost.
“We knew we wanted to keep our schools open, so this is what we had to do,” said Nicole Wolfe, superintendent of the Union-Endicott School District. “Our parents want their kids in school.”
School officials in Erie County's new yellow zone are now facing the same challenge. They say they don’t want to close schools, but worry that the cost of testing may be too high and the logistics may be insurmountable.
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They aren’t, Wolfe says.
And, she adds, any students who do not want to be tested do not have to be – and they can continue coming to school.
The cost of the Covid testing to her district: about $500, which paid for personal protective equipment for the two people administering the Covid tests.
And the logistics: challenging but doable.
It’s essential for schools to find a community partner that already has a lab license, Wolfe said. That enables them to get a testing operation up and running with minimal delay.
“I would tell anyone who is in this situation where they’re in a yellow zone to find a community partner who can help you,” she said, “and meet with them as soon as possible to figure out the logistics.”
One of the first steps for Union-Endicott was to meet with United Health Services, a network of hospitals, clinics and health services.
The school district already had a contract with UHS, which provides the schools with an athletic trainer and a strength and conditioning coach. Those are the two people who were drafted to administer the testing, Wolfe said. The district was already paying for their services, and Covid-19 has cut into sports this year, leaving the trainer and the coach more available for testing.
The Binghamton School District, which also lies in Broome County’s yellow zone, also is using UHS staff to administer the tests.
“Schools cannot simply pull their nursing staff and have them test,” Binghamton Superintendent Tonia Thompson said. “Our nurses are needed to do their current jobs and respond to the Covid quarantine rooms.”
In addition to the people administering the tests, Binghamton has reassigned district employees to eight full-time positions and four substitute positions to help with registering people to be tested, processing the tests and entering the test results into various databases, Thompson said. The employees’ regular positions in the district have been left unfilled.
Not invasive
Getting the Covid-19 tests was relatively easy, Wolfe said.
The schools told the Broome County Health Department how many tests they needed. The county submitted a request to the state. And the state sent the tests directly to the schools.
Administering the tests has been relatively easy, too, Wolfe said.
Each week, the schools randomly select students and staff from among those who have given the schools permission to test them. Testing is done in the school gym.
The BinaxNOW Covid-19 tests involve inserting a swab into one nostril, circling five times, then doing the same in the other nostril.
“It’s not invasive,” Wolfe said.
The swab is put into a reader about the size of a credit card, and a few drops of a testing solution are applied. The card is rotated three times. And the results are known in about 15 minutes.
Bringing the numbers down
Parents in both districts have been asked to sign consent forms to allow the schools to test their children. About half of them in Union-Endicott have given consent, Wolfe said. And nearly three-fourths of the faculty and staff have volunteered to be tested.
In Binghamton, about 40% of the faculty and staff volunteered to be tested, Thompson said.
Four of the seven schools in Union-Endicott are located in the yellow zone, and a total of about 400 people a week have to be tested. During the first two weeks of testing, only one person tested positive, Wolfe said.
Those results are helping to bring down the overall Covid-19 positivity rate in Broome County’s yellow zone.
“We’re helping to bring the numbers down in our region,” Wolfe said.
Binghamton began its school year fully remote and was scheduled to begin its hybrid instruction in October. But when the yellow zone was announced, officials decided to delay opening until Nov. 2, to provide time to prepare for the testing, Thompson said.
In Binghamton’s 10 schools, all of which are in the yellow zone, about 760 people a week must be tested, she said. Only one person tested positive during the first week of testing.
Offering a choice
There has been some confusion in Erie County as to whether students can continue to attend school in person if their parents do not give consent. Some superintendents say the state has not provided a clear answer.
In both Binghamton and Union-Endicott, students can attend school even if their parents have not consented to testing.
“It is CDC-recommended to engage in testing using volunteers, and we want people who participate in the testing to be advocates,” Thompson said.
Testing 20% of the people in schools is a state mandate, “but at the same time, we’re not going to exclude students from school,” Wolfe said. “Because we’re offering choice, our community is pleased to have their schools remain open.”
