Updates December 16, 2021

 

December 16, 2021

 

Dear LaFayette School Community:

 

I have a few updates for our students, staff members and families. While 2021 has been loaded with lots of bad news, I wanted to start with good news first to help shine a light on the great work by our students. It was an awesome experience to have our students back on stage and our families in the auditorium for our December concerts. Congratulations to our student performers and our instructors on these outstanding concerts.  A video of the performances is available on the school or district Facebook page.

 

 

Our students and families continue to show their generosity to those in need. Recently, the National Junior Honor Society supported the Toys for Tots program and collected holiday gifts to distribute to families in need. Also, our varsity basketball players delivered gifts to Golisano Children’s Hospital. LaFayette is truly an amazing community that looks to give back. Great job Lancers!

 

 

Our eighth grade students at the Onondaga Nation School held a drive-through Community Give for Onondaga Nation elders. It was a great experience for our students to give back and our elders were glad to receive the gifts and see our students. 

 

 

COVID Updates

During the month of November, we experienced a post Halloween surge in cases. Thankfully, our case numbers have declined during the month of December. However, as infections increase in the surrounding community, cases will occur among our students and staff. Please continue to stay home when you are sick, wash your hands and consider signing up for surveillance testing. We will not be hosting surveillance testing next Tuesday December 21st due to the approaching holiday. We will resume COVID surveillance testing on Tuesday January 4, 2022. Our amazing school nurses conducted 151 COVID tests this week with only one positive result so far. You can learn more about surveillance testing by visiting - https://www.lafayetteschools.org/teacherpage.cfm?teacher=2235

 

Here are the updated number of COVID cases reported for students or staff in our district for this school year:

https://schoolcovidreportcard.health.ny.gov/#/home

 

 

School	Total Students Testing Positive	Total StaffTesting Positive	138 Total Reports of Positive Cases
Grimshaw Elementary	42	6	48
LaFayette Jr/Sr High and Big Picture School	41	14	55
Onondaga Nation School	27	8	35

COVID Vaccine Clinics

On December 10th, Grimshaw Elementary hosted a Pfizer vaccine clinic for students ages 5-11. Over 70 students were vaccinated during the months of November and December and over 50 staff members received their booster shots at the clinics. Thank you to Wegmans pharmacy for supporting the vaccine clinics at Grimshaw Elementary and thank you to the Onondaga Nation Health Clinic for providing booster shots for staff.

 

The Onondaga Nation School will host a Pfizer first dose vaccine clinic on Thursday December 23, 2021 at ONS. This clinic is sponsored by Wegmans and is open to all Onondaga Nation children ages 5-11. You can learn more by viewing the message from Principal Gonyea - click here. Here is the link to sign up through Wegmans pharmacy -https://c.ateb.com/8a108e206c55489f80e53be68a69b8cc

 

If parents are interested in the school hosting a COVID vaccine clinic later in January or February, please email me - jbelfield@lafayetteschools.org to let me know if you are interested. Many families are accessing available vaccine clinics at local pharmacies, county clinics, or state run vaccination centers. You can learn more about vaccine availability by visiting - https://covid19.ongov.net/vaccine/. As with all medical decisions, please be sure to consult with your child’s doctor regarding the COVID vaccine.

 

Test to Stay- Grimshaw Elementary, LaFayette Jr/Sr High, and LaFayette Big Picture School

Onondaga County recently announced that schools can use a protocol called “Test to Stay” for students who are placed into quarantine following exposure to continue to attend school. The health department requires that the school district apply for a limited service laboratory license, have approval from the district’s medical director, and have an approved protocol in place. The district mailed the application for our license yesterday and we have requested 2,000 rapid tests from Onondaga County. We anticipate beginning “Test to Stay” for quarantined students, with parental consent, in the coming weeks. Once NYSDOH has issued our license and we have an approved protocol in place, we will be sure to share these details with our families regarding the test to stay. 

 

If You See Something….Say Something

Unfortunately, there has been a growing trend on social media regarding non-specific threats of violence towards schools. While we are not aware of any specific threats made towards any of our schools in LaFayette, we want to use this as a chance to remind our students, staff, and families that if you see a concerning post on Tik Tok, Facebook, or other forum, please remember to report these concerns immediately to the police, your school principal and/or to me - jbelfield@lafayetteschools.org or 315-529-9550 (cell). Here is some additional information:

Law enforcement has shared information with us regarding a threat against a non-specific school that originated in California and is currently circulating on social media.  They are currently investigating the social media post.  If you are made aware of this on social media, please do not circulate the threat to others.  This will only deepen the concern without proof that it is credible.  If you have information about this, please contact the police. We have every intention that school will operate as normal tomorrow.    Know that we are taking this threat seriously and we will communicate with you if we have more information to share.  Thank you.

  

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Belfield

Superintendent of Schools

LaFayette Central School District

jbelfield@lafayetteschools.org

315-529-9550 (cell)