Rye City School District Needs Your Help

Dear Rye Community,

I am writing to ask for your help. As Covid-19 rates increase in our area, and neighboring Port Chester and portions of Rye Brook are designated as yellow and orange micro-cluster zones, the Rye City School District is working to do everything in its power to avoid having to close schools if Rye is designated a micro-cluster zone.

Governor Cuomo announced last week that communities designated as a yellow zone are required to close schools until weekly testing of 20% of the school population (students and staff) is in place. Schools are not legally allowed to test until they are designated a Limited Services Laboratory (LSL). To obtain this designation, New York State has directed that school districts establish partnerships with community medical organizations to facilitate the required Covid testing. In addition, we have been directed to work with our local health department to develop a testing strategy. We are currently working with the Westchester County Department of Health. However, it has been made clear that they have very limited ability to assist us due to the increase in Covid cases and sparse testing resources provided by the state.

In order to find a community health partner with the capacity to support the weekly testing and analysis of approximately 700 individuals, we need help. If you know a local medical laboratory or organization with the capacity to assist with this amount of testing and analysis, please contact me directly at byrne.eric@ryeschools.org.

As always, we will continue to do everything in our power to keep our students, faculty, and staff safe and to keep our schools open. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Eric Byrne. Ed.D., Superintendent of Schools