GRAHAMSVILLE — The Tri-Valley Central School District announced on Sunday that, due to the number of staff and students who have recently tested positive for COVID-19 and the resulting quarantine requirements, Tri-Valley Elementary School (TVES) would transition to remote instruction through Friday, December 10.

In-person instruction at TVES is expected to resume Monday, Dec. 13.

Like other school districts across Sullivan County and the country, Tri-Valley is looking to keep schools open and students safe despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tri-Valley Secondary School remains open for in-person instruction.

As the Democrat reported on Friday, Sullivan County saw the largest single-day increase in the number of COVID cases since Public Health Services started tracking them at the beginning of the pandemic.

“The likelihood of getting infected in school is low … not zero,” said Dr. William Silver, Interim Superintendent of the Tri-Valley Central School District on Friday. “We’re doing our best to stay open because I really believe kids need to be in school.”

By Sunday, however, Dr. Silver reported that 55 students at the elementary school were either on quarantine or had tested positive for COVID.

Additionally, Dr. Silver said that 17 teachers, teaching assistants and aides called in sick or were quarantined.

Silver says the district is doing everything they can, including requiring that students and staff wear masks and social distance, to mitigate any risks.

Still, some parents in the district think more can be done to prevent in-school transmission.

Amanda Sibiga said she believes one of her children may have been exposed to COVID in mid-November before a number of other family members tested positive and their family ultimately had to cancel Thanksgiving plans.

“I think they should at least give us the option to do virtual learning and keep our kids home,” Sibiga said.

On Friday, Dr. Silver said the district was capable of switching to a remote learning model due in part to the ChromeBook laptops they provide to students.

“We can ‘flip the switch’, but the kids don’t want to do that. They really want to be in school. The teachers don’t want to do that because last year [remote learning] was not a happy experience,” Dr. Silver said on Friday. “[Remote learning] is not nearly as effective as in-person teaching.”

Dr. Silver says their concern is not only any potential exposure to the virus at school, but also maintaining enough teachers and staff for classes and school programs.

“Our teachers’ union has been very cooperative and we’ve come up with a couple of ways to help support keeping the schools open. Teachers are giving up their prep periods to cover classes and that seems to have stemmed the tide a little bit,” Dr. Silver said during a recent Tri-Valley Board of Education meeting.

Tri-Valley is not the only local school district which has been impacted by rising COVID cases.
As the Democrat reported on Nov. 26, the Monticello Central School District had to suspend in-person classes for one day due to a lack of available bus drivers.

Last week the Eldred Central School District announced, that because of a “sharp increase in the number of positive COVID cases,” they were also going virtual through Friday, December 10.

Public Health Director Nancy McGraw told legislators on Thursday that about 22 percent of all of the County’s new cases in the last week were kids 16 years of age or younger.

“The schools are a mess right now with cases,” she said, “and there’s still a good number of unvaccinated staff. Of course, we want to get those vaccination rates up with children. We vaccinated about 400 children [ages 5-11] in our first three clinics … we're continuing to vaccinate and push folks to pharmacies and health care providers for pediatric vaccinations.”