BY MATT LINDSEY
North Country This Week

CANTON — Canton Central School is starting to see its staff call in sick more now with increased guidelines handed down by the state health department.

Canton Central Superintendent Ron Burke said this week 4 or 5 teachers had reported symptoms and had to stay off campus. He said they are following health department guidelines and as soon as they get clearance they will return to school.

He said all of the teachers who exhibited symptoms were tested for COVID-19.

The symptoms are also impacting the district’s ability to keep the school clean and sanitized. Burke said a few cleaners have exhibited symptoms and are missing time.

“There are only so many overtime hours a person can humanly work,” he said. “We do not have subs in that department.”

Burke said a number of people on the district’s sub list for maintenance were contacted for work and said they were not comfortable returning to work in the school.

“Nobody’s knocking down our door with applications,” he said, noting that it’s not just a CCS problem.

Burke said he was also nervous about being able to provide student transportation in the event an outbreak takes place with bus drivers.

“We don’t have a deep bench when it comes to our bus drivers,” Burke said. “We have a few subs, some of those are folks who will probably be traveling south here in the near future.”

School officials are working on alternate plans in the event there are not enough bus drivers to complete all routes. That may include postponing runs to certain parts of the village.

Burke did say not being able to replace the maintenance staff could force his district to go remote.