A Tupper Lake basketball player is defended in a game against Parishville-Hopkinton on Dec. 9, 2019.
(Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)
School districts in Section X won’t be participating in high-risk sports yet.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last week that high-risk athletics such as ice hockey and basketball would be allowed to restart on Feb. 1 — as long as school districts are able to meet a slate of requirements and local county health departments give the OK.
BOCES officials, Section X leaders and superintendents of the 24 school districts in Section X have decided not to move forward with high-risk sports yet, the St. Lawrence-Lewis and Franklin-Essex-Hamilton BOCES announced in a joint statement Friday.
The Tupper Lake Central School District falls under Section X. Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Keene and AuSable Valley teams play in Section VII, which is leaning toward restarting high-risk sports.
Lower-risk winter sports are already underway, such as Nordic and Alpine skiing and track — normally it’s indoor track this time of year, but it’s being done outside.
The Essex County Health Department announced its decision to let school districts move forward with high-risk sports on Thursday, and the Clinton County department echoed that Friday.
“Any data or factors that indicate a level of transmission or threat to public safety that impact COVID-19 control or mitigation may result in the suspension of these activities,” the Essex County department said in a news release on Friday.
The Saranac Lake Central School District, which has students from both Franklin and Essex counties, is evaluating its options.
“We are looking at every single option we have,” Athletic Director Eric Bennett said Friday. “We’re awaiting documentation from Franklin County on what paperwork we need to submit. We haven’t received a comprehensive packet of what we need to put together to get the OK from the health department.
“We’re looking to give our kids whatever we can give them,” he added.
The state Department of Health and the Franklin and St. Lawrence County public health departments outlined requirements school districts have to meet to safely hold high-risk sports this winter. Among those are the development of a thorough safety plan, securing separate buses for each team, providing staff to assist in contact tracing procedures, and recommendations for a weekly testing protocol.
“At this time, based on the present health crisis in Franklin and St. Lawrence counties, and due to concerns about logistics necessary to make these programs safe and successful, Section X school districts are not ready to commence high-risk winter sports,” a news release from the BOCES districts reads. “The Section X school districts are committed to an ongoing discussion regarding the evolving health and safety conditions and their ability to meet public health guidelines. In the interim, school districts will continue to meet and work on required plans so that when feasible, a return to high-risk athletics will be as safe as possible.”
In deciding what to do, the Section X school districts worked with the two county health departments to evaluate current health metrics, including a recent spike in cases and a significant increase in hospitalization rates in both counties.
Right now, counties across the North Country region are experiencing higher COVID-19 test positivity rates than they did most of last year, plus a decline in open hospital beds. There has also been a sharp increase in the number of school staff and students placed in mandatory quarantine over the past few weeks, which in many cases has affected districts’ ability to hold in-person learning. The Tupper Lake school district announced this week it would continue fully remote learning at least until March because it didn’t have enough teachers and staff not on quarantine.
“The school districts that compromise Section X remain fully committed and continue to work closely with its school leaders and local Departments of Health experts,” Section X Director Carl Normandin said in a statement. “Moving forward, the focus will be on a sport-by-sport basis to complete the required preparedness plans as outlined in the DOH protocols and the NYSED guidance documents to ensure a safe practice and competition environment. The districts and Section X task force will continue to meet to explore various models for potentially conducting an abbreviated winter, fall II and spring sports season once the health and safety factors indicate that it is safe to do so.”
