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Rise in COVID Cases Makes Elmcrest Elementary Go Online Elmcrest Elementary Goes To Remote Learning Due To Rise In COVID Cases

By Raven Brink

Raven Brink: 

With guidance from Onondaga County, schools in the area are allowed to participate in in-person learning, and even with precautions such as 3 feet in between desks and masking, exposures to COVID are still occurring at Elmcrest. President of the Board of Education Dan Romeo says this could be due to the fact that Elmcrest’s student population comes from all over Onondaga county, and sometimes even other counties.
Dan Romeo: it is something that is consistently being monitored by the superintendent and his team in what the ability of the schools to continue in-person learning in an effective
Brink: This school year, both teachers and kids are more than happy to be back in the classroom and with their friends, mom of two Elmcrest students Caitlin Devendorf says that both of her kids have had quarantine in the past month due to exposure.


Caitlin Devendorf: My kids love going to school, um and they cried when I had to tell them because they wanted to be in person
Brink: Devendorf says that she hopes that this year can stay in person, provided that its safe, but her and Romeo both say that the vaccine is the only way to get things back to normal.
And with a few other schools on the verge of shifting to online learning. Romeo says that he wants to help get the kids who want to be vaccinated, vaccinated.



Romeo: Were going to do everything we can to partner up with the county to get as many children vaccinated as we can.
Brink: The Syracuse City School District does not have a precedent in place for how many cases it takes to require the switch to online learning. And with a return to in-person classes on October 14, Elmcrest Elementary is excited to get back to their classes and hopeful they will be able to stay there, In Liverpool, I’m Raven Brink, NCC News.


SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – School in Onondaga County has been back in session for a month now. As Pfizer is trying to get their vaccine approved for children ages 5 to 11 years-old, mom of two Caitlin Devendorf, at Elmcrest Elementary, has already had to quarantine both of her children.

“My second-grader was quarantined two weeks ago due to an exposure at school,” Devendorf said, “and my fourth grader is currently quarantined due to an exposure at school.”

The school her kids attend has moved to online learning for the week due to an increase in COVID quarantines. Although she wants the school to be in person this year, she said that she is prepared to have to undergo another year of online learning.

With the learning curve of the pandemic last school year, she said that the teachers were very prepared for this switch to online learning. “The teachers found out at 2 o’clock,” Devendorf said, “and in an hour and a half my kids were on the bus, Chromebooks in hand, their chargers, packets of papers, they knew when to sign on, and we were given their schedules.”

President of the Syracuse City School District Dan Romeo said that there are a few schools in the county that are getting prepared to move online as well. As numbers keep going up, and there is still no vaccine for kids under 12. 

With Pfizer pushing for emergency authorization for their vaccine, Devendorf said she will vaccinate her kids instantly, and Romeo said he “would work with the county, to get as many kids vaccinated as they can.”

Syracuse City School District currently does not have a precedent of how many COVID cases are required to constitute that switch to online learning, but Romeo said that it is constantly being monitored by the superintendents. Right now Devendorf, Romeo, and many other parents are just waiting for the vaccine so school life can go back to normal, whatever that new normal might look like.

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