Lockport schools report COVID-19 cases

Benjamin Joe, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.
·2 min read

Sep. 25—Assistant Superintendent of Personnel Lisa Schrader reported that there have been 38 identified positive cases of the COVID-19 virus in Lockport schools since July 1.

Of that number, 16 were found at Lockport High School, one at Lockport High School West, three at Aaron Mossell Junior High School, eight at Emmet Belknap Intermediate Schoool, one at the North Park Annex Building, two at Anna Merritt Elementary, two at Roy B. Kelley Elementary School and five at George M. Southard Elementary.

Last year at this time, there were two positive cases of COVID-19 in all the buildings, Schrader said during her report to the Board of Education Wednesday.

"Instructionally, one change from September 2020 as compared to September 2021 is that more students and staff are physically present each day in the building," Schrader said in an email to the US&J. "This may or may not be a contributing factor."

To help keep the district staff, as well as parents, in the loop, Schrader said at the meeting that her department has tried, "to streamline the messages to make them as accurate and succinct as possible and deliver those to the appropriate people."

Schrader said the messages will include what building the positive case was connected to on the day of identification. BOE President Karen Young asked when the cut-off time was for notifying parents and staff, and Schrader indicated it was 4 p.m.

"Any other case after 4 p.m. will be reported as of the next day," Schrader said.

"We are still required to report daily on the COVID Daily Dashboard at New York state," Schrader's report to the BOE concluded. "We still do that, so if anyone is interested to look at our specific data, you could have access to all of that on the COVID Daily Dashboard."

The dashboard can be found at https://forward.ny.gov/percentage-positive-results-county-dashboard.

Schrader also noted that, "The district follows directions on quarantine and contact tracing provided by the NYSDOH (New York State Department of Health) and the NCDOH (Niagara County Department of Health)."