School district leaders going over COVID sports guidance

Among the new COVID guidelines from the state Education Department is a recommendation that school sports should be cancelled in communities with high transmission.

NYSED says if there is a high community spread and all of the students are not fully vaccinated, they should either cancel sports or conduct them virtually, which you obviously can’t do in most cases.

Don Stevens, the assistant superintendent for the Watervliet City School District, says they have read NYSED’s guidelines. He says if there is a high community spread, they will limit the number of spectators in the stands. He says if a student got COVID, they would conduct contact tracing and quarantine students if they needed to.

The Watervliet Board of Education approved a layered mitigation plan that follows the CDC guidelines.

"We’re still planning for bringing sports back, but if that becomes a situation and there is a high community transmission, especially here within our community, then we’ll definitely weigh those options," said Stevens.

Hear what the New York State Public High School Athletic Association is saying about the state guidelines by watching the video of Jonathan Hunter’s story.