Canisteo-Greenwood Central School District

Good afternoon, this is Tom Crook, Superintendent of Canisteo-Greenwood. We were informed late this morning that we have a positive 9th grade student. The county has asked us to investigate for Monday, December 14th. We have completed our contact tracing and our administrative team has started contacting the individuals affected by the case. If you do not receive a call today directly from an administrator, your child did not qualify to be quarantined. If your does child qualify for quarantine, they can still attend their sessions virtually. Stay safe and healthy everyone. Yours in service. Thomas J. Crook Superintendent

Good morning. Late yesterday afternoon we received word that one of our elementary teachers has tested positive for COVID-19. This individual became symptomatic last Sunday and has not been in the building all week awaiting test results. Our contact tracing goes back to Friday, December 11th and has been completed. For precaution, the district had already asked the individuals that we felt would be quarantined to stay home while the symptomatic teacher awaited the test results. Stay safe and healthy everyone. Yours in service, Thomas J. Crook Superintendent

Good morning all. Since we were already scheduled for a 100% remote day today and I asked the teachers to work from home, we will have our remote day as scheduled. It does not make sense for us to use a snow day when we already had everyone scheduled to be at home anyway. Let's save our days for when we are in-person and you get that true "snow day" call. I know this is somewhat "Grinchish" but I will make it up to you, I promise. Your Grinch Superintendent, Thomas J. Crook

Following our COVID plan and protocol, I am writing to you today to let you know of another positive case that was reported to us last night. It was reported that we have a positive high school teacher. Due to the timeframe of their symptoms and the last time they were in the building, there was no need for contact tracing. Stay safe everyone. Yours in service, Thomas J. Crook Superintendent

Due to the impending storm, all after school activities (swim practice and off-season workouts) are cancelled for this afternoon. Stay safe everyone.

Please take a second to fill out this quick survey regarding food during the CG remote learning. https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=MZKb3TIZiUGRKfxP6aax7ggn89mA4jFAv6knOJn3tfVUQlQ1T1pPRTc1SlpQRlpDTVhYQ0s1VDRWVy4u

Just a few announcements this morning regarding our remote scheduling: -BOCES students will not be attending in-person and are asked to report virtually. -Alternative Education students will be provided a device to attend their program virtually. -HS students are required to attend all of their classes through Teams according to the bell schedule. Attendance will be taken. -we are currently working on a food pick time for Friday (1-3pm). A survey will be going out later this morning to see how families would like food during the remote time. Please be on the lookout for a link to a survey sometime this morning that will be sent through our mass notification system. Good luck to all and stay healthy.

Good afternoon, this is Tom Crook, Superintendent at Canisteo-Greenwood Central School. Today, we had 3 new positive students reported to us by the county health department. It has been a wild day here at CG and we have completed our contact tracing. The quarantine numbers from the cases are up to 61, including some staff members. As I stated in a message last week, we were getting to a possible point where we would not have enough substitutes to be able to operate. I am sad to say that we have reached that point. Due to the number of individuals quarantined, Canisteo-Greenwood Central School will be shifting to 100% remote starting tomorrow, December 16th until the Christmas Break. We are expecting to see all of our students and staff returning on January 4th. Elementary students will be following a virtual schedule and will be communicated to the students through SeeSaw. High school students will be expected to follow their bell schedule starting tomorrow. They will report to each class through Teams. All students are expected to be in attendance (even quarantined students). Please refer below to a message that was sent out previously by Mr. Reynolds. 1. Students will attend their normal classes virtually Monday through Thursday, using their typical bell schedule as they would if they were still attending in person. These classes will occur on Microsoft Teams, may involve synchronous interactions with their teachers, and will require participation and the completion of all assigned work. Students should log in on their school laptop and use their school account. 2. All current full time virtual students will follow the schedules that were mailed out to them at the beginning of the year, attending those classes virtually, like all other students, as stated in item number 1. 3. Any student attending BOCES will be expected to attend, participate, and complete any online instruction provided by BOCES. All-Day BOCES students and students attending alternative education at BOCES will be provided a computer by the district. 4. On Fridays, students should expect to work with teachers and other staff for support, reinstruction, or the clarification and re-teaching of concepts as needed and as scheduled by the teachers. 5. Students in special classes with Ms. Denkenberger, Mr. Bosworth, and Ms. Creelman will complete instruction as directed by those teachers. 6. Any student that experiences a legitimate hardship based on their access to internet, bandwidth, or family situation must reach out to their teachers, who will make flexible accommodations as needed. The swim meet for tonight is still going to be held as scheduled. We cannot thank you enough for your continued support. Yours in service, Thomas J. Crook Superintendent

Good afternoon, this is Tom Crook Superintendent at Canisteo-Greenwood following up from our message earlier. Our contact tracing is complete and we are pleased to announce that there will be minimal impact due to the student being sent to the nurse's office upon entering the building. There are just a handful of people affected and those individuals have been contacted. I must tell you that we are potentially reaching a tipping point where if we have any more cases this week that require us to get substitutes, we may have to go remote for a few weeks. We are not seeing transmission of the virus in school, but it is the quarantine requirements that are the challenge for CG currently. Our protocols are working and it is still a safe place to send your children and we know how important it is to have school open.

Good afternoon, this is Tom Crook Superintendent at Canisteo-Greenwood. We received a call today from the county health department that one of our elementary students has tested positive for COVID-19. The administrative team will conduct the contact tracing today. If you do not hear directly from a CG administrator today, your child is not affected by the case. We know of one classroom and bus that will be affected at this time but the investigation has just started. Stay tuned for further updates.

There are 3 Verizon hotspot locations where you can drive up for Wi-Fi service for our virtual learners. Methodist Church-South Canisteo WLEA Greenwood School

COVID 19 Update: As you have seen over the past few days, CG has seen a minor uptick in cases (2). We will be keeping a very close eye on our individuals that are out with symptoms and awaiting either an alternative diagnosis or a negative COVID test. With our positive case this morning, we are at 10 positive cases since school started September 8th. If we begin to see a notable increase in cases, and we feel school is not a safe place to be, we may start discussions to go 100% remote up to the Christmas Break. This week will show us the true fallout from Thanksgiving if there is going to be one as projected. I believe through our masking, distancing, and sanitizing efforts we have done an excellent job of stopping the spread of the virus when we have had positive cases. To date, we have yet to see a positive case from any of our quarantined individuals that we designated as a school contact in the elementary school (and yes, I knocked on wood). In the high school, we suspect that there may have been one transference that occurred in school (our very first cases), but there is no way to verify that suspicion. This just goes to show that our efforts are making a difference and school is a safe place to be. Our school is healthy and our COVID plan is working. Contact Tracing: I know that this morning’s call threw everyone for a loop, including me. I apologize for the late notice and any hardships that it may has caused. The reason I had to close the elementary school is our contact tracing takes time. We must contact the positive individual and have a conversation with him/her regarding where they were and who they were around for the 3-day investigation window. We then must look at cameras and follow the employee around to make sure that we didn’t miss anything. If the employee is a teacher or aide in a classroom, the entire class will be quarantined. The county has a sheet that we must fill out with the contact’s name, telephone number, address, and if they are a student, the parents’ names. And then we begin making the phone calls to the families. The process takes on average 3-4 hours depending on how many people we have working on it and the number of contacts. If we were to have the students show up this morning and they ended up being a contact, we would have had to send them home after being here for a few hours and disrupt our families even more. It is not ideal to cancel school at 6:45 am, but it is the right thing to do for all our families and employees. With our latest 2 cases, we have 62 students and 9 adults quarantined. The teachers are quarantined with their students; therefore, they will be able to teach remotely during the quarantined time with their students. Currently, we do not feel it is necessary to close the entire school or district for 2 cases. As stated above, we will keep a very close eye on our individuals out with symptoms and if we feel it is getting to the point where it is not safe to have school open, we will go 100% remote. Quarantining keeps everyone safe from a potential spread and it has proven to work for us thus far. None of what we are dealing with COVID is ideal, but we are doing the best we can to keep our schools open and a safe place to be. Quarantining 71 individuals in less than 24 hours is not ideal and causes many hardships, and for this, I apologize. Through our investigations of the 10 positive cases, we have encountered since September, I feel (as well as the County Health Director) that Canisteo-Greenwood is as safe as it can be with this virus. If there ever comes a time where I do not feel that way, I will do what is necessary to protect our children and staff. Yours in service, Thomas J. Crook Superintendent

The contact tracing is complete for our case this morning and our affected families have been notified. If you did not hear directly from Mrs. Brownell this morning, your child has not been affected by the positive case and is safe to return. The Elementary School will be open tomorrow, Tuesday, December 8th.

For further clarification: Today's closure is for the ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ONLY. The High School is still open.

We just received word that one of our elementary teachers has tested positive for COVID 19. Due to the timing, we must close the ELEMENTARY school today, Monday, December 7th for contact tracing. We apologize for the late notice but we just received word of the results. It is ONLY THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

Good evening, this is Tom Crook, Superintendent at Canisteo-Greenwood. Sorry for the message on the weekend, but we were informed this afternoon that one of our elementary employees has tested positive for COVID 19. This individual was last in the building on Thursday, December 3rd and it will affect multiple classrooms and several employees (53 students and employees in total). Our administrative staff has begun to make the necessary phone calls to the families and employees. Due to the efforts of the administrative team this afternoon, there will NOT be a need to close the district for contact tracing. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at tcrook@cgcsd.org or cgcovid@cgcsd.org.

Good afternoon, this is Tom Crook, Superintendent at Canisteo-Greenwood. We were informed this morning that one of our bus drivers has tested positive for COVID-19. With my initial conversation with the health department, based on when their symptoms started (Sunday) and the District not being in session Wednesday – Friday last week for Thanksgiving, there is no need for the District to close for contact tracing. One important update to pass on from the health department is that many of their cases are now showing symptoms where just a few weeks ago, many were asymptomatic. Please pay attention to any symptoms and take the necessary steps to protect yourself and others. Thankfully this employee knew they were not feeling well and did not report to work, therefore protecting our staff and students from possible infection. Please remain vigilant for our staff, students and families by following recommended COVID protocol by wearing a mask, maintaining physical distance, washing your hands and keeping your personal circles small. The current positivity rate for the county is at 7.2% which puts us at risk for being designated a yellow zone by the state. Let’s do our part to make sure that doesn’t happen. If you have any questions, please reach out to tcrook@cgcsd.org or cgcovid@cgcsd.org Thank you.

The Canisteo-Greenwood Athlete of the Month for November is Anthony Loper of the Boys Varsity Soccer team! Anthony scored half of his teams goals this past season. He recorded a hat trick in a 4-4 tie against C-S which went into OT. If you see Anthony, please congratulate him on a job well done!

The Canisteo-Greenwood Central School District will be running a non-perishable food drive with all of the items collected being donated to families within the school community. This is the season of sharing and the district has always shared generously. In addition to food we will also be collecting new mittens and new winter hats. Non-perishable items, mittens and hats will be collected on a daily basis from November 18 to December 10, 2020. Please send your donation with your child to school. Remember to check expiration dates and be wary of glass donations, we don’t want broken glass on buses or in backpacks for student safety. Thank you in advance for your generosity! CG Holiday Committee

Update: the District completed their contact tracing yesterday afternoon. If you did not hear directly from Mr. Reynolds, you are clear to return in person tomorrow. There were a total of 29 students who qualified with the County Health Department for quarantine and Mr. Reynolds reached out to all the families yesterday.