Roy-Hart Families,
As you may be aware, New York State has given approval for local health departments and athletic leagues to make determinations on moderate and high risk sports. At this time all sports in our region have received approval to begin their season, with the exception of wrestling which is postponed to May 10.
Please understand that the move to allow moderate and high risk sports, especially those that take place indoors, required much deliberation and consideration by local health departments, educational leaders, and athletic league representatives.
Section VI, our section’s athletic league, made the determination to allow for moderate to high risk sports for our student-athletes. However, they also decided that moderate and high risk indoor sports would proceed without spectators.
The decision to start the season not allowing spectators for indoor events is due to many factors, which include:
Concern of Spread. Everyday we are doing our best to mitigate the spread in our school community. Thankfully, due to physical distancing and mask wearing, we are not seeing spread within our schools. However, opening up indoor sports certainly creates an additional risk, which we will monitor closely.
Resources. As a district we have expended, and continue to expend, an extraordinary amount of financial and human resources just to keep our doors open to educate our children. This is particularly true with respect to the added costs of cleaning and disinfecting products and the additional cleaners we have added to our staff.
Section VI will reevaluate permitting spectators on February 22. It is very important that we first make sure moderate and high risk indoor sports can operate for our student-athletes, prior to introducing spectators.
On a related note, we plan to Livestream some of our athletic contests so our families can enjoy watching their children compete.
Sincerely,
Dr. Hank Stopinski
Superintendent of Schools
