Jan. 21 update: return-to-school attestation, kindergarten registration, budget development

A message from Superintendent Wiles:

Dear Guilderland CSD Families,

On Tuesday, Jan. 18, the Guilderland Central School District released new COVID-19-related protocols and procedures. If you have not had the opportunity to visit the district website to read all of the details of GCSD’s new COVID-19 protocols, please do so.

An important point of the new protocols is that should a student develop COVID-19 symptoms, regardless of vaccination status, they must adhere to the following protocol to return to school: the student must have one negative lab NAAT, lab antigen test or PCR test OR two negative over-the-counter (ie., at-home or take-home) antigen tests taken 36 hours apart. The symptomatic student should stay home for the 36-hour period between the two over-the-counter tests. Negative COVID-19 results must be reported to the student’s school using this attestation form. For your convenience, the attestation has been converted into a Google form, which will be submitted directly to the student’s school nurse.

Should the student test positive for COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status, the student must isolate for a full five days, with day 0 being the day of symptom onset or the day of the positive test. The student may return to school after day 5, if asymptomatic or if symptoms are resolving. Please see the district website for the full guidelines.

Did you receive your students’ at-home rapid COVID-19 test kits?

On Friday, Jan. 14, GCSD held a drive-through distribution of at-home rapid COVID-19 test kits. Each K-12 GCSD student is entitled to one test kit. If you did not pick up the test kit(s) allotted for your student(s), the district will begin distributing the kits, by family, at school next week. We ask families to remind students not to open the test kits until they are home and in the presence of an adult. These test kits are an important tool in helping to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19.

New kindergarten student registration has begun

GCSD is accepting registrations for new kindergarten students for the 2022-2023 school year. To be eligible to enter kindergarten for the 2022-2023 school year, children must be 5 years old by December 1, 2022. For more information on the kindergarten registration process, please visit the student registration section of the district website.

GCSD begins 2022-2023 budget development

On May 17, 2022, Guilderland residents will vote on the proposed budget for the 2022-23 school year. Here is a timeline leading up to the vote. We invite all Guilderland residents to share your ideas, questions and concerns regarding how we can best meet the needs of our students and community. This infographic shows how you can add to the conversation. Also, please look for the release of a Thoughtexchange next week that will ask about your priorities for the 2022-2023 budget.

COVID-19 cases for Jan. 18-Jan. 21

The information below details the number of new COVID-19 positive cases for Jan. 18-Jan 21. For daily positive COVID-19 cases affecting GCSD, please visit the NYS COVID-19 Report Card.

Altamont Elementary School: 20 new cases
Guilderland Elementary School: 15 new cases
Lynnwood Elementary School: 17 new cases
Pine Bush Elementary School: 26 new cases
Westmere Elementary School: 7 new cases
Farnsworth Middle School: 45 new cases
Guilderland High School: 30 new cases

As always, thank you for your continued patience and support. Stay warm and have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Marie Wiles, Ph.D.
Superintendent

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