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Lansing School Superintendent Chris Pettograsso updated the Board of Education Monday on measures the district is taking to deal with the COVID-19 coronavirus.  There are no cases of COVID-19 in Tompkins County at present, but Pettograsso said that the administration is doing everything possible to prepare.  She said the administration has been in close contact with the Tompkins County Department of Health, other school districts, and that she has been sharing information on the disease via a series of emails to district residents.

"Superintendents have been sharing information all weekend," she said. "I've been sending out just communications, all pretty generic at this point about how to be safe and how to protect yourself. The biggest thing that we're trying to share with our community is that if there's anybody that's known to have the virus to be open and up front and share with us. "

Pettograsso said the Tompkins County Department of Health issued a school guidance missive and is working closely with the New York State Education Department as well as local school districts.  She said that school trips abroad have been cancelled to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and administrators are beginning to think about prohibiting large assemblies and events.

"Colleen Ledley (Director of Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment and Professional Development ) and I spent some time talking with Ithaca today, so we're following similar plans and sharing our information," Pettograsso said. One of the things that is coming up is, when do we start to consider large group events, and when do we start to say we're closing that? We think that might be after the musical -- we're going to fit the the musical in. So we are really just waiting for guidance. There's nothing at this point that would lead us to say that that is something that we would need to do. Now. It's changing on a daily basis. I want to be clear that that could be a shift at any point."

School Business Administrator Kate heath said that she, Buildings & Grounds Buildings and Grounds Glenn Fenner, and school doctor Melissa Dhundale would be attending a non-pharmaceutical intervention planning workshop at TST BOCES Tuesday.  She said the workshop would cover tweaking the district's pandemic plan, which Pettograsso noted was put in place to deal with the bird flu scare in 1997.

Heath also said that Fenner has brought in a temporary additional staff to help with disinfecting the school buildings, so subs are floating between buildings to help disinfect them.  Extra cleaning has been done to deal with the flu as well.

"We are filling that in and making sure that our buildings are staying as clean as possible," Heath said.

School Board member Brenda Zavaski asked Pettograsso whether the school is well supplied in light of reports in the news that panic-buying of toilet paper and other products is leading to shortages.  Pettograsso told her the administration is in close contact with the district's vendors, and especially keeping an eye on the supply of masks needed by some students.

Pettograsso said that if it becomes necessary to actually close the schools, the administration will be prepared.

"We've received some guidance today about if you have to close a school, what do you do? Do you close the district? Do you close a building? There are a lot of notifications anytime that we have to activate our building," she said. "There are schools closing, down towards New York City, the Westchester area, and the Scarsdale area. We'll be looking for some guidance from people that are doing it."

At this time school officials are hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.  Like health department officials, Lansing school administrators are stressing that people should was their hands often, with soap and water, for at least 20 seconds; avoid close contact with people who are sick; avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth; avoid handshakes and hugs; cover sneezes and coughs; and stay home when you are sick.

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