Dear Staff, Parents and Community Members:

We have been notified that a staff member and a student at the RISE preschool and a student at Barrows has tested positive for COVID-19.  The Barrows student was remote this week, so there were not any close contacts in school.  The two RISE cases are not related.  Through our contact tracing procedures, we have identified the staff and students who were potentially in close contact with the two RISE positive cases.  Those who were potentially in close contact are in the process of being contacted by the Director of Nurses, and the RISE Preschool Director.

Using our cleaning and disinfecting protocol, the impacted classrooms and spaces at the schools were disinfected as part of our regular extensive misting disinfection

Recently, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated their definition of close contact to include someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated.  In school settings, close contacts include being in a classroom, in other school spaces, on the bus, or at an extra-curricular activity.  Contact tracing with the individuals who tested positive is ongoing, and any close contacts in the schools have been notified and will be followed up by the Reading Board of Health.  As a result of contract tracing of the above cases, 19 students and 5 staff had to be quarantined.  In addition, 10 students in another class will need to go remote because staff in that classroom have to quarantine.  At this time, we have not received any reports of other students or staff members experiencing illnesses with symptoms resembling those of coronavirus for this particular case.

We would also like to emphasize that none of the positive cases in our district thus far have been transmitted in school.  We want to thank our students, staff, and administrators for creating and establishing a safe and healthy learning environment in our schools.

We are closely monitoring this situation and will provide you with any further updates, if necessary. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

John F. Doherty

Superintendent of Schools