Pine Bush Elementary third-graders go remote

GUILDERLAND — The school district here, which started surveillance testing for COVID-19 on Jan. 15, announced today that a student at Pine Bush Elementary School had tested positive.

“As a result of this case and the need to quarantine several individuals, Pine Bush has a staffing shortage at the 3rd-grade level,” Superintendent Marie Wiles wrote in an email to district families on Thursday evening.

Consequently, all Pine Bush third-graders will move to remote-only learning on Friday, Jan. 22, through Friday, Jan. 29. Third-grade students and staff will return for in-person instruction on Monday, Feb. 1. 

Wiles also announced three other new COVID-19 cases — two at Guilderland High School and one at Farnsworth Middle School.

According to the state’s COVID-19 Report Card, as of Thursday evening, Guilderland has had 121 confirmed cases since the start of the school year: 65 at Guilderland High School (which also includes workers, like bus drivers, not assigned to a building), 22 at Farnsworth Middle School, nine each at Altamont and Westmere elementary schools, seven at Lynnwood Elementary, five at Guilderland Elementary, and four at Pine Bush Elementary School.

More Guilderland News

  • The state comptroller found that Guilderland, for the past four years, had not properly allocated sales-tax revenues from the county, to which Guilderland Supervisor Peter Barber responded that the 1965 state law on which the comptroller’s office relies is “grossly out of date.”

  • As the Guilderland Town Board began its discussion of the 107-unit proposal on Nov. 18, Supervisor Peter Barber said, “I always like to use an analogy to baseball because I think at this step we’re not even in the first inning. This is simply just to accept the application, meaning that we're not approving it.”

  • Altamont Mayor Kerry Dineen said the Enterprise news story was how she and board members learned of the tax hike, and she called for changes going forward. “I don’t think this increase should stand,” Dineen said, suggesting the budget be amended.

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