Albion district awaiting details on Covid testing mandate for unvaccinated staff

ALBION – The school district is awaiting guidance from the Department of Health about a new state mandate requiring unvaccinated staff to be tested weekly for Covid-19.

Mickey Edwards, the district superintendent, said 83.8 percent of Albion Central School staff are vaccinated and don’t need to be tested weekly.

The other 46 employees will need to be tested for Covid. Edwards said the district is waiting on guidance from the DOH on how the tests should be administered, whether at the district and if employees could get tested on their own and then submit the results.

“It is working out the logistics of it,” Edwards said this morning. “It is determining when and who is doing the testing.”

The unvaccinated staff will need to do the tests weekly “or they can’t come to work,” Edwards told the Board of Education on Monday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Aug. 31 announced the testing requirement for school employees statewide.

In other action during the Board of Education meeting,

•  The board accepted a $5,000 donation from the Albion Alumni Foundation to be used as the “Superintendent’s Discretionary Fund,” which assists students in need during the school year.

The estate of Kathryn Mahany Kerrigan provides the funding. Kerrigan was a certified primary care nurse practitioner and nurse midwife.

• The board accepted 2,150 masks in adult and youth sizes at a value of $1,309.35 from BMP America in Medina.