Dear Staff, Parents and Community Members:

We have been notified by the Board of Health that some staff and students in different schools have tested positive for COVID-19 over the last few days. Contact tracing has been completed on all of these cases and close contacts have been or are in the process of being notified. The breakdown is as follows:

• Birch Meadow student was in person last week.  Two adults and 10 students are quarantined due to close contact.
• 3 Parker students were remote during the infection period.  No close contact.
• 5 Coolidge students were remote during the infection period.  No close contact. 
• 3 RMHS students were remote during the infection period.  No close contacts.
• RMHS student was in person last week, contact tracing is in process.
• RISE @ Wood End Extended Day staff, 3 staff and 8 students in quarantine, Wood End extended day is cancelled for the rest of the week due to the need for additional staffing. 
• Joshua Eaton student was in person during infection period.  There are 9 students, 1 staff in quarantine. 
• Wood End student was remote last week.  No close contacts.

Using our cleaning and disinfecting protocol, the impacted classrooms and spaces at the schools were disinfected as part of our regular extensive disinfection of our classrooms, core facilities, bathrooms, and other learning spaces.  If a student was in school while they were positive, we engaged our emergency cleaning protocol and disinfected the room immediately and let is stay dormant for a minimum of 12 hours.

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, 27 students and 6 staff had to be quarantined. 

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

John Doherty

Superintendent

Reading Public Schools

82 Oakland Road

Reading, Massachusetts 01867

781-944-5800

John.doherty@reading.k12.ma.us