Since the beginning of November, school nurse Lucie Bernucci has had a short line of students outside her office each morning, waiting to slide into her chair to be rapid tested for COVID-19.
“It does go much easier when the students are older versus the younger students, who are more scared about having it done,” said Bernucci, who’s worked at Tanglewood Elementary School for the past eight years.
They were usually in and out in under a minute. Like any experienced nurse, Bernucci knows all the tricks for the youngsters who are more reluctant.
“We kind of play a game,” she said. “I count with them and I have them count with me and we make it a game and we sing along… I hope I don’t have to sing today!”
South Glens Falls, where Bernucci works, is the first district to take part in the Saratoga County Department of Health’s new pilot program that allows unvaccinated students who’ve been exposed to COVID-19 to stay in school as long as they’re symptom-free and produce a negative test.
“If this means me doing extra work to keep kids in school it’s not a problem,” Bernucci said. “I think that’s the most important thing to have kids in school.”
“That’s why we’re doing it, we’re doing it because we want kids in school,” South Glens Falls Superintendent Kristine Orr said. “If they’re healthy, they should be able to be here.”
In the program’s first week alone, Orr says more than 80 families opted to have their children “test to stay,” giving them valuable time in the classroom instead of learning at home.
“What they did in one week of time is save 197 days of instruction for those students, and that number will continue to grow,” Orr said, comparing the policy to last year’s protocol when exposed students had to quarantine for two weeks.
Orr says that should ease the burden on parents who would otherwise be stuck home with their kids during quarantine.
“That’s why we’re doing the pilot program, because we want to make differences for our families so they’re not feeling the hardship,” she said.
After a half hour, all 20 children who cycled through Bernucci’s office seemed to be OK.
“As long as there’s only one line, that means it’s negative and that’s a good sign,” Bernucci said, as she held up one of the student’s test. “For now, nobody has a second line, which is a wonderful thing.”
This is just one of the ways she says she’s here to help keep her students healthy and happy.
“A lot has changed since I started back in 2013, definitely a lot has changed, but it is gratifying,” she said. “Just helping one little child, just one day for one child, is worth every minute of it.”
