Broome School Districts Scramble to Welcome Sports Fans

School districts in Broome County are being sent scrambling to work out details on allowing spectators at sporting events as word came out from the Executive’s office February 22 that fans can return to student athletics.

Some district athletic programs had anticipated spectators would be allowed back, all-be-it a limited number of fans, for the spring sports season when many events would be held outside.  The unexpected announcement by Executive Jason Garnar’s office undoubtedly sent a few coaches and staff grabbing for tape measures and calculators to determine logistics of admitting parents and others to the gym.

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Among the rules for the return of spectators are a limit of no more than two people per home-student athlete, social distancing in the stands and monitoring not only the participating athletes, coaches and other staff, but now expanding the logging system to include spectators.  According to the Broome Health Department guidelines at gobroomecounty.com/countyexec/covid19schoolresources, schools would need to be able to record names, county of residence, phone numbers and email addresses and make the records available to the health department for tracing if needed.

Individual school districts can decide if they will allow fans.