A bus arrives in September at Winslow Junior High School. The new building opened to seventh- and eighth-graders for their first days of school Sept. 8 and 9, 2020. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel Buy this Photo
Seventh-graders at Winslow Junior High School will be learning remotely for the next five days due to a positive case that has left multiple employees quarantined while superintendents from Waterville and the Skowhegan-based district have also reported new cases of the disease.
WINSLOW
Superintendent Peter Thiboutot announced Wednesday that a positive case of COVID-19 at Winslow Junior High School has left the seventh grade short-staffed.
“Six staff members associated with grade 7 are considered close contacts and must quarantine out of precaution as well,” Thiboutot wrote in a letter posted to the district’s website. “As a result of staff having to quarantine, all students in grade 7 will be learning remotely starting Thursday, January 21, 2021. We will resume in person learning for grade 7 on Tuesday, January 26, 2021. Grade 8 students and staff were not impacted by this incident and may continue with in-person learning.”
This is the third time this school year that the district has had to briefly transition to fully remote learning due to positive cases.
Since September, the district has had seven positive cases of COVID-19.
WATERVILLE
In a letter published to the district’s website Wednesday, Superintendent Eric Haley said an individual associated with Waterville Junior High School had tested positive for the disease.
“We are also aware that this individual has not been in school since Friday, January 15th,” Haley wrote. “Members of the Waterville nursing staff and I have been in contact with the Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) as well as the individual who tested positive.”
The individual who tested positive and the identified close contacts are required to quarantine until Jan. 25 and can return to school Jan 26, according to Haley.
This brings the district’s case total to nine since the beginning of the school year.
MSAD 54
Additional cases of COVID-19 have been reported within the Skowhegan-area school district, the superintendent said Wednesday.
In a letter to families sent Wednesday, Maine School Administrative District 54 Superintendent Jon Moody said that administrators were made aware of two incidents of COVID — one involving an individual at Bloomfield Elementary School and one at the Somerset Career and Technical Center.
Moody said the Department of Education and the Center for Disease Control & Prevention have been contacted and are working on contact tracing.
“Because exposure occurred with individuals at multiple locations, several students and staff have been contacted this evening and asked to quarantine,” Moody wrote. “At this time there is no recommendation that we close a school or take additional actions beyond those described above.”
As of Wednesday there have been 22 cases of COVID-19 within the district.
MSAD 54 serves students from Canaan, Cornville, Mercer, Norridgewock, Skowhegan and Smithfield.
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