Hallowell-, Readfield-area schools report positive COVID-19 cases

READFIELD — Regional School Unit 38 Superintendent Jay Charette announced Thursday night that there are new COVID-19 cases in two of the district’s schools.

Readfield Elementary School has a possible positive COVID-19 case and students were attending class remotely Friday. Further communication will be provided over the weekend, Charette wrote, about whether the school will continue remote learning next week.

“Based on the possibility of possible COVID cases, we will use the remote day to deep clean the building,” Charette wrote on the RSU’s website, adding that contact tracing will be done as well.

Later Thursday night, Charette reported that Maranacook Community High School had a student that tested positive for COVID-19. He said that the student is a fully remote student, but is involved with RSU 38 athletics.

Charette said that close contacts were called, and the appropriate sports games and practices were canceled.

Since the student at MCHS is learning remotely, the school will not move to that for all students and the other sports teams that were not impacted will run as scheduled.

“I am confident with the safety protocols we have in place that we can continue to offer and participate in sporting events,” Charette said.

In addition to RSU 38’s COVID-19 cases, the Hallowell-area’s Regional School Unit 2 also announced positive cases of coronavirus.

Hall-Dale Elementary School has another positive COVID-19 case.

Prekindergarten students at the school were attending remotely Friday, with an expected return to school on Jan. 25.

Superintendent Tonya Arnold said that the switch to remote learning is in part of both the positive test and limited staffing coverage. She said that close contacts have been called.

The RSU 2 central office underwent contact tracing, too, as an individual associated with the office reported a positive COVID-19 case. There are no changes within the central office, Arnold said.