It’s a big day for many families across the region: the first day of school. For the second fall in a row, the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the classroom. This year, nearly every student is returning to the classroom full time, so there are some precautions.

North Syracuse Central School District will keep students at least 3 feet apart as much as possible. If it’s not possible, there will be additional mitigation strategies, like hand washing or extra ventilation. 

Student, teachers, staff and visitors will be wearing masks regardless of vaccination status. Staff members must be vaccinated or get tested for COVID-19 every week.

“The kids K-12, have had no choice in this process,” said Ryan McMahon, Onondaga County executive. “You, the adult, had a choice. You, an adult, if you work in a school district, were able to be almost first in line for the vaccine, so you, the adult, need to go the extra mile if you’ve chosen that the the vaccine isn’t for you.”

If teachers and staff do not follow the mandate, they face a possible fine or misdemeanor charges. At North Syracuse, the staff filled out a survey online and emailed a proof of vaccination to human resources. 

Across Onondaga County, about 10% of students and staff will be randomly tested in each school building this year. The proactive testing program will use the pooled saliva testing, developed by scientists at SUNY Upstate. Each test costs $20, so the whole program will be expensive.

“This will be a multimillion dollar effort that we are putting forward really to make sure kids are going into in-person learning and that it’s safe and that we find virus,” said McMahon. "Certainly, at some point, we know we will find virus in the classroom and then we box that in.”