As COVID Cases Rise,

Oneonta Schools Go

Virtual Until January

By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

ONEONTA – With COVID cases topping 126 county-wide this past week, including five Oneonta Elementary School staff members and one high school student, Superintendent Thomas Brindley announced that all schools will go fully remote until Tuesday, Jan. 19.

“Concerns associated with our community’s rising COVID-19 cases, recent cases that have affected our schools, uncertainty of what the holiday impact may have on COVID cases, need to establish a bit of educational stability and consistency during this time,” he wrote in a letter posted on the school’s website. The DoH has referred to Oneonta as the ‘epicenter’ of this outbreak, and our community is witnessing its highest COVID-19 positive numbers outside of what we experienced with the college spike.”

According to Brindley, two of the infected staff members work out of Riverside Elementary, one out of Greater Plains Elementary, and one who is shared between two schools. The student is enrolled in the high school. 81 students and 27 staff members, believed to have been exposed to these cases, are in quarantine.

“We are seeing testing sites booking two days out and results slow to come back,” he said. “It appears as though the contact tracers as well as the Otsego County Department of Health are doing the very best they can, but are facing tremendous challenges with the rising cases.”