The superintendent of Batavia City School District is calling on the governor to change the rules. Anibal Soler said it would allow Batavia’s school district to keep its doors open.

Over the weekend, the superintendent closed schools for in-person learning until January 4, but not because it’s unsafe for students.

"At this point, with the rates going up, and the number of people being quarantined as a result of that, it’s really our impact with staff, we just can’t keep the doors open," said Soler.

He said New York state restrictions make it too difficult to keep a full staff on hand.

"That’s the variable that we’re not talking enough about, is that the governor can say that the schools are important enough to stay open, but we need some of the guidance to change where school level employees are deemed essential and they don’t necessarily have to quarantine if they’re not showing the symptoms, they can still report to work," said Soler.

High school health teacher Travis Byrnes is one of the teachers forced to quarantine earlier in the school year.

"I came in contact with either a staff or a student, I’m not sure exactly who...I was quarantined for 14 days," he said.

As of Monday, nearly 300 students have had to be quarantined and 81 staff members due to close contact or a positive test result.

"We’re gonna be online virtual for a long time maybe," said fourth grader Jeremiah Pedro.

He and his sister, Lillian Horgan, both prefer in-person learning.

"It’ll make my grades better, and besides that, I like seeing my friends a lot more and I can’t really get to see them a lot if school’s kind of closed down," Horgan said.

Soler said if keeping schools open is a priority, then districts need support by changing the guidelines to make it feasible for the adults to be in the buildings.

"If you need schools open because of the impact of the economy, the ability to have other things in our society then we gotta have a conversation that educators and teachers and administrators and aides and principals, they’re deemed essential staff, so they shouldn’t have to follow these guidance. They should be treated like medical staff in the sense that they don’t have to quarantine, they’re exempt from some of these rules," said Soler.  

The superintendent knows of no other superintendents in the state calling on the governor to deem school teachers and staff essential, but he hopes others will support the efforts.