BOE assesses new COVID-19 guidelines, ratifies agreement with county

PINE PLAINS — The Pine Plains Board of Education (BOE) discussed the school district at its Zoom meeting last Wednesday, Jan. 6.

Superintendent of Schools Martin Handler turned the BOE’s attention to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s recent announcement that school districts can open in counties that have a COVID-19 positivity rate of 9% if testing shows the spread in schools is lower than the community average, as was discussed at length at the meeting by the Dutchess County Department of Health (DOH) and Dutchess County superintendents earlier that day. 

Questions remain — such as whether the infection rate is over a seven-day average or how much of a district’s student and staff population need to be tested — Handler said the DOH have “no more of a clue than we do because they’ve got no guidance from the state health department.” 

However, to make sure the district is prepared, he shared plans to send out a consent form to parents for permission to test students for COVID-19. Handler informed the BOE that school nurses will do the tests, which he called “minimally invasive” and with results in 15 minutes. Calling them “surveillance tests,” Handler said while “not 100% accurate,” they indicate if someone is positive for COVID-19.

BOE President Chip Couse asked Handler to explain the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Pine Plains district and the Dutchess County Department of Behavioral & Community Health (DCDBCH). Handler explained that for the district to conduct COVID testing, it must do so under the DCDBCH’s license. Using test kits obtained from the state, Handler said district staff would be trained by the county to administer the COVID-19 tests. 

Handler explained why the memorandum arrived late that afternoon, stating the district had the original MOA with the county allowing it to test for COVID-19, but that the MOA “got kicked back to the county.” Handler told BOE members to keep in mind that there are several different lawyers from several different school districts reviewing the agreement. He added that the MOU featured on the board’s agenda that evening was roughly its fifth draft.

“I’m not thrilled getting a 13-page document three or four hours before a board meeting and then having to react to it, is my concern,” Couse said.

Handler noted that if the MOU wasn’t passed that evening, the BOE would have to put it back on the agenda in two weeks, adding the district wouldn’t be in a  position to do any COVID testing.

“I don’t want to hamstring this, and that’s the difficulty of the thing,” Couse said. “On the one hand, I hate to get it three or four hours before the meeting, and on the other hand, the topic is a fairly serious one and needs to be dealt with.”

Since the document speaks to general liability insurance, Couse asked Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Michael Goldbeck what the district’s coverage is. Though he said he could get back to the BOE on the specifics and would like time to review more documents, Goldbeck replied that the district was covered for “more than a million for liability.”

The BOE ratified the MOU that evening, though Couse pointed out on a later date the agreement applies to a scenario where it “does do sample COVID-19 testing.”

He explained that the agreement is a proactive step and won’t be implemented “until and unless we are declared a ‘yellow zone.’” 

In trying to get “all our ducks in a row” in advance of any change of destination, Couse said the agreement would prevent the need to shift to remote learning while the district is getting the required steps in place to bring students back to school.