Onondaga County will soon be conducting the state-required COVID-19 testing for staff and students participating in hybrid instruction at each of the six Fayetteville-Manlius School District schools in the county’s designated yellow zones.
If each yellow zone school reaches the 20 percent required threshold for testing, those schools will be able to remain open for in-person instruction. If 20 percent of the staff and in-person students at a particular school do not register for testing, that school must shift to remote instruction for all students until the state removes the zone designation.
At this time, the yellow zone designation is not impacting the schools’ ability to remain open for in-person instruction. Each school will continue to follow its regular hybrid instructional schedule unless parents and guardians are notified otherwise.
Testing is voluntary, and parents and guardians will not be required to be present. A testing link was sent directly to families via SchoolMessenger. When registering, parents and guardians must identify the testing site as the school their child attends, and students can only participate if their regular day of in-person instruction falls on their school’s testing date (see below). Staff should choose the school where they are primarily based.
Remote students will not be tested as the zone designation requires only those students and staff members attending school in-person to be tested.
If at any time a parent or guardian wishes to rescind their consent, they may do so by contacting their child’s building principal before the time of the scheduled test.
Testing is planned for the following dates.
Friday, Dec. 4 (Cohort B)
- Eagle Hill Middle School
- Enders Road Elementary School
- Fayetteville Elementary School
- Mott Road Elementary School
Monday, Dec. 7 (Cohort A)
- Wellwood Middle School
Thursday, Dec. 10 (Cohort B)
- F-M High School
Testing will be accommodated on a first-come, first-served basis until the requisite number of tests have been spoken for in a particular school building.
The tests are shallow nasal swabs, and they will be administered at no cost as the county has supplied each school. Results are known within 15-20 minutes. Anyone with a positive result will be sent home. If a school’s testing results reveal that the school’s positivity rate among the 20 percent tested is lower than the yellow zone’s current 7-day positivity rate, testing at that school will no longer be required.
“We are hopeful that we will have enough students and staff members registered to meet the state-required threshold so our schools may remain open for in-person instruction,” Superintendent Craig J. Tice said in his letter to families and staff.