As has been constant during this pandemic, the Beacon City District School (BCSD) Superintendent Matthew Landahl has kept the community updated with COVID shifts as cases ebb and flow. In his weekly Superintendent Update email sent on December 30, 2021, he stated that the district might receive a shipment of rapid self-tests before school starts on Monday, and if so, he explained what the process would be.

The line at Rombout Middle School to get COVID-19 home tests from the first shipment was long but moved swiftly.

On New Years Day, like a warm hug, Dr. Landahl sent a robo-call and text to the public school community announcing that the rapid tests had arrived, and would be distributed to BCSD students on January 2, 2022, at Rombout Middle School from 1:30-3:30pm. He requested volunteers to come to help organize people and hand out the tests.

Caregivers were instructed to write down their children’s names and ages for record keeping purposes. Those who did not write down the name had to pull into a special name-writing parking spot. Those who missed the distribution could register online to have their child take home a test in their backpacks the following school days.

At 1pm, cars already lined Matteawan Road early, backed up past the middle school, gradually to Verplanck Avenue with more cars wanting to turn right from Wilkes Street. This kind of traffic buildup usually only occurs on nights of a choral concert where students from several BCSD schools are performing at once. But that was in the pre-pandemic days when audience sizes were not limited.

The volunteers had opened up early, and the line moved briskly. One car did break down and needed a jump (note to self: juice the USB-powered jumping cube for just such an occasion…and find the USB-powered jumping cube somewhere in the car or shed).

Two pathways were created to receive handouts of COVID-19 home tests for BCSD students.

Several Board of Education Members attended the event, making sure it ran smoothly. Dr. Landahl walked between volunteer parking attendants and acted as a shuffler of cars after they were given one test box per student, answering questions from parents as parents and caregivers pulled away.

Dr. Landahl’s instructions were guidance. He encouraged caregivers to help students take the tests Sunday evening, before the first Monday of school back after the winter holiday, but stressed that taking the test was not mandated. Nobody has to take the test to go to school.

If one tested positive with this test or any test, Dr. Landahl encouraged people to email himself or the Deputy Superintendent, Ann Marie Quartironi with the update. No need to update them if the test was negative (yay you!). While rapid tests have questionable false negatives, they are so far a part of this pandemic.

A negative test result from an at-home rapid test sent home to BCSD students. Now everyone gets to experience the test-strip based anxiety of a home-pregnancy test!

Dr. Landahl reported that 60% of the BCSD students were given test kits during the Sunday distribution. The remainder of the students who did not make it to the distribution can sign up to get a test kit put into their backpacks via a special link that was emailed to caregivers.

While some caregivers were worried about supplies running out, New York’s Governor Hochul seems committed to having students tested on the regular. Other states like Ohio are far ahead of New York in this initiative, having provided home test kits to students and libraries since before Thanksgiving 2021.

PS: Kids are calling this “the boogie test” because you got to swab as much snot as possible!

Are At-Home Rapid Test Kits Coming To Residents Of The City Of Beacon?

After Governor Hochul’s announcement of her “Winter Sure Plan,” at least one shipment of rapid home tests arrived to Beacon via Dutchess County via New York State. All municipalities were sent one shipment. The City of Beacon decided that the Beacon Police Department would hand them out. The Beacon Police Department posted an announcement on their Facebook Page. ALBB ran an article promoting their message.

The demand was so great, that supplies lasted only a few hours. By the next day, or day after, the Beacon Police removed their Facebook post. Mayor Kyriacou never made a robo-call or text or email to announce that test kits had arrived, and City of Beacon never published any announcement to their website, as the Mayor stated they would at a City Council Meeting toward the end of the year.

The Communications Department of Dutchess County who is normally very responsive to questions, was on vacation during this time, so did not return requests for shipment schedules when ALBB reached out.

If the City of Beacon received any additional shipments, it is unknown how they would have made that announcement, based the way they did not announce the first shipment.

However, on the City of Beacon’s website, you can learn about the Inauguration of new City Council Members that happened January 1 had been closed to the public out of an abundance of caution for COVID, and the proper way to dispose of a Xmas Tree (just make sure no lights or ornaments are on it, don’t put it in plastic, and leave it nekid and natural on the curb for the Highway Department to pick up…they will take it to the Transfer Station to turn into mulch).