OSWEGO – Guest speakers from Oswego Health and the Oswego Public Health Department joined reopening discussions during last night’s Oswego City School District Board of Education meeting, September 1.
OCSD Superintendent Mathis Calvin III introduced guest speakers Oswego County Health Department Senior Health Educator Diane Oldenburg, and Oswego Health School Physician Dr. Robert Morgan.
Oldenburg was the first to speak, citing the Health Departments role in aiding and supervising the schools reopening. Oldenburg has been with the Health Department for over 30 years.
“I represent the Health Department as part of the Reopening Comp Team for reopening and planning. Our role at the Health Department again is really looking at public health aspects, and the impacts of school reopening in the community and in the county; trying to keep your school communities healthy, and again, knowing how that impacts the community as a whole,” Oldenburg said. “So, some of the things that we do is really help interpret some of the State Department of Health Guidance that has come out. We’re well area that some of the State Ed and State Health Guidance doesn’t always jive, so we do our best to kind of make sense of that and help you all make sense of that.”
The Health Department will play a large role in contract tracing and case investigation, as well as securing contact numbers, school nurse information, and working with the districts on cases that would impact the school community, including quarantine and isolation.
Morgan spoke next, discussing his role in part of the school’s reopening plans. Morgan has been a family physician in Oswego for 35 years, joining the Oswego Health Organization two years ago.
“Our role now is to try to help push aside any politics about COVID. This is scientific; this is how we’re going to beat this. This is a Bill Nye the Science Guy moment,” Morgan said. “Let’s consider the following: you’re going to wear a mask, you’re going to socially distance, [and] you’re going to wash your hands. And if somebody can’t figure that out, we’ll help them figure that out because it’s really not a political event… Unfortunately, as Diane said, not all of our direction is easy to interpret, because there are people who are trying to make it political. The CDC is not the same as the FDA; it’s not the same as the governor, it’s not the same as the county… We’re going to help sort it through, and we’re going to do it from the science. The science is what’s going to beat this, and we want to well remind everybody… But it’s not everything as usual; nothing is as usual… We’re going to be contacting, we’re going to be tracing what’s going on. We’re going to tweak it, we have to tweak it. Everything is in flux, but I think we’ve got some good people on our team and whatever questions you guys have, don’t hesitate to bring it to us. And we’ll get a scientific and non-political answer to you.”
Both Oldenburg and Morgan discussed the importance of taking COVID-19 seriously, urging residents to apply the necessary tools to keep themselves and their loved ones safe during this time.
“This is something new,” Morgan said. “Last time is was 1917-18 – lasted 18 months [with] 670,000 dead Americans. If you think this is not something real, then we’re going to get them to the facts. I think we’ve done a really good job with coming up with opening program, because we have to learn to live with this virus.”
The board continued to discussed reopening plans, touching on certain topics such as student technology, virtual learning broadcasts, PPE and increased public information.
Also mentioned during last night’s meeting, Calvin discussed the state’s $30 billion dollar budget deficit occurring over the next two years, resulting in a 20 percent cut on education funding. The impact will include a potential loss of $7.1 million dollars for the 2020-21 year.
“At this point in time we are unsure if the reduction will be permanent. We don’t know that as of yet,” Calvin said. “We’re still waiting for guidance from the state.”
Board documents can be found here and reopening information can be found here.
All BOE meetings are held the first and third Tuesday of every month.
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