A gathering at a Pine Bush school board member’s house is among the social and athletic events cited as the sources of a COVID-19 outbreak that has delayed the start of hybrid classes for middle and high school students in the Pine Bush School District, and resulted in the cancellation of the SAT exam.

As of Tuesday, 21 high school students have tested positive for the coronavirus, Acting Superintendent Donna Geidel said at a school board meeting that night. The number of cases had more than doubled in less than a week.

On November 5, Geidel posted a notice on the district’s website, saying ten students had tested positive, and announcing that hybrid learning — two days in class, three at home — set for November 10 would be pushed off until December 1 for seventh- through twelfth-graders. At that time, Geidel said that the district has received reports of multiple parties over the Halloween weekend and that at least some students did not wear masks or practice social distancing. Adding to the spread were practice sessions for travel teams, unaffiliated with the school district.

Geidel said cases have been traced to many of the events, but Tuesday night, during the public participation part of the meeting, emails to the district zeroed in on a gathering at board member Matthew Watkins’ home and wanted to know what the board was going to do about it. One email put the crowd at Watkins’ home at 50 people. The number was no where near that, Watkins said Wednesday. Watkins, himself, has tested positive for COVID-19 and said he also is asthmatic and “under advanced medical treatment.”

Explaining the events, Watkins said his family has children “at our house on a regular basis.” The night in question also doubled as a birthday party for one of the children, he said. Watkins said he told people to wear masks, but cannot say everybody did all the time and, of course, the kids had their masks off while eating birthday cake.

Watkins, who lives in Shawangunk, is well known for his civic involvement. He is also a member of the Shawangunk Town Board and is a trustee of the Pine Bush Area Public Library. All that worked against him, however, because people said that as a public figure, he has a greater responsibility to follow the rules. In his defense, he said he didn’t intentionally ignore safety warnings and has complied fully with the department of health to help with tracing the outbreak.

Nonetheless, the blowback has stung. Watkins said he is shocked at how nasty people have been, attacking him and even his own children.

Tuesday night, Gretchen Meier, the school board president, said she couldn’t speak for other members, but said in general the board upholds the highest standards. Everybody, she said, has the opportunity to make their own decisions. At the same time, she urged the community to report possible cases. Some people don’t because they don’t want school canceled, she said. Geidel made the same point in an earlier post, writing: “I am deeply concerned that some of our families are withholding information regarding positive cases which puts our whole community at risk.”

Tracing the recent outbreak, for example, began with a chance call from a district employee to a student who had signed up for the SAT exam that was scheduled for November 7 at the high school, Geidel said after Tuesday’s meeting. “People are not being forthcoming,” she said, fully aware that people are tired of the restrictions in place to control the virus.

It’s Everywhere

Despite President Trump’s assertion that control of the virus is just around the corner, cases are spiking in the US, and New York and the Pine Bush School District are no exceptions. Many states in the Midwest and Southwest report seven-day rolling averages of 100 or more cases per 1,000 residents. On Tuesday, the country hit another one-day record, logging more than 135,000 new coronavirus cases, along with 1,403 additional deaths.

As of Tuesday, Orange County had recorded a total of 14,531 cases, that’s up from 13,704 as of October 30. Two towns in the Pine Bush district, Montgomery and Wallkill, reported 31 and 38 active cases, respectively.

Two other towns in the district, Crawford and Mount Hope, did not record any active cases as of Tuesday. Pine Bush also serves Shawangunk, which reported 31 active cases on Tuesday, and Gardiner, which reported eight active cases.

Ulster County reported 331 active cases on Tuesday, up from 250 on October 30. In Sullivan County, 100 active cases were recorded on Wednesday, up from 86 on October 30. The Pine Bush district serves a small slice of Sullivan County around Bloomingburg. Sullivan reports cases by ZIP code, and Bloomingburg is but one address in the 12721 ZIP code. Sullivan has recorded at total of 136 cases in 12721, but the number of active cases was not available.

Holiday Concerns

Bracing for the holidays, the next big chance for spreading the virus, the district is reminding community members who travel to any non-contiguous state that “it is mandatory you and your children quarantine for three days, then take a COVID-19 test on the fourth day after returning. If that test is negative, the student is allowed to return to school.”

Because quarantining and testing is done on the honor system, the district encourages people to be honest for the sake of the health and safety of students and staff members. Further, Pine Bush wants anyone traveling to a quarantine-mandated state during the holidays, or during February break, to email the appropriate teachers and principals, in part for safety reasons and to make sure education continues during any quarantine. The district has no real power to enforce its rules. Geidel recognizes that she can’t make people do anything they don’t want to do.

Making Ends Meet

Two other reports Tuesday night highlighted the grip the virus has on district families. The virus has clobbered the nation’s economy, and no work means people have a harder time paying bills and buying food. Although the state added a total of 109,300 non-farm jobs in September, unemployment outside of New York City stood at 6.5 percent. A year ago, the unemployment rates in Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties were all under four percent. As of September, the Kingston statistical area had lost 3,100, or 4.9 percent of the jobs it had in September 2019. In the Orange-Rockland-Westchester region, 76,000, or 10.6 percent, of jobs vanished in the same period, according to the state Department of Labor.

The loss of jobs no doubt figured in the rise in delinquent taxes in Pine Bush, said district treasurer Dawn Loechner. As it does every year, the district turns over the job of getting uncollected taxes to the counties. This year, the district turned over $3.91 million total to Orange, Sullivan and Ulster, up from $3.77 million last year. Although the number is up, it wasn’t as bad as Loechner feared, and a relatively small percentage of the district’s $56 million tax levy, she said. But taken with the second report, it does show the strain on family finances.

Lyn Prestia, director of food services for the district, reviewed the school’s nutrition programs for the board. The district’s efforts include providing free curbside pickup of meal packs in Circleville and Pine Bush. The meals are provided to families with children up to 18 years old regardless of income and location. The schools are now handing out 16,000 meals a week, and, so far, have supplied 124,000 meals this school year, up 99,000 that were distributed from March of last year through the end of the school year. Just one more indicator of the strain that continues within our community.