January 26, 2021 -COVID Surveillance Testing

January 26, 2021

Dear Families and Staff,

As I informed you in my January 22, 2021 Community Update, the District has collaborated with the Westchester County Department of Health to receive additional  SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests.  The acquisition of these tests will allow us to conduct a minimum of four weeks of  surveillance testing of randomly selected in-person students and staff.  This testing is not mandated by New York State, but rather a voluntary action by the District to help ensure the health and safety of our students, staff, and community.

We will be testing 5% of our in-person students and staff per week to bring us to our monthly goal of 20%.  If you have not already done so, please complete and submit the consent for testing form which can be accessed at this consent for testing link. Fully remote students do not need to complete a consent form. We will begin testing with Cohort A and staff on Monday, February 1, 2021.  The testing days for each Cohort and staff are listed below:

On Thursday, January 28, 2021 students and staff selected for the first week of testing will receive an appointment notification outlining the time and location of their testing along with any additional pertinent information.  Students and staff who do not receive an appointment notification and were not randomly selected for testing will report to school at their normal time.  No delayed opening schedule will be necessary for these rounds of surveillance testing.

Again, please complete and submit the consent for testing form as soon as possible if you have not already done so. I am also including a link to this testing demonstration video, which we had created prior to our November testing, as a reminder of the testing procedure. We appreciate your continued flexibility and support as we strive to keep our schools open and our students and staff safe.

Sincerely,

Christopher Borsari

Superintendent