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09/22/2020 12:00 PMThirty percent of the Westbrook High School (WHS) student body has been quarantined for 14 days after the district was notified about a positive case of COVID-19 in the school community.
On the afternoon of Sept. 13, a Sunday, the district received notification of a positive test. The identity of that person cannot be disclosed because of confidentiality requirements, explained Interim Superintendent of Schools Patricia Charles.
Parents were notified that evening about the positive test as well as the closure of WHS for a thorough cleaning from Sept. 14 through 16. The closure also allowed time for the town’s director of public health, Zachary Faiella, to complete contact tracing.
Parents of children deemed to have had close contact with the infected person were notified on Sept. 13 and 14 that their children would be required to quarantine at home for 14 days while distance learning. The majority of those notifications were sent on Sept. 13, according to Charles.
“Close contact is defined by the [Centers for Disease Control (CDC)] as [being] within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from two days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, two days prior to specimen collection),” according to a notice signed by Faiella and Charles on the WHS webpage.
Sixty students were determined to have been in close contact with the person who tested positive. WHS has 200 enrolled students, 14 of whom are full-time distance learners. Thus, the 60 quarantined students account for 30 percent of the entire student body and 32 percent of those who have been attending school in person this academic year.
Charles said she is “really pleased with the manner with which students and teachers responded” to the news. Their experience when school was closed suddenly in March at the onset of the pandemic contributed to the “smooth transition” from in-person learning to distance learning, she said.
“[O]ur staff did such a great job [bringing classes online] this last spring it certainly helped in preparing us for this,” Charles said.
For the three days that WHS was closed, all the students “had to transition to remote” learning, explained WHS Principal Tara Winch. “We were very fortunate that we are set up for that.
“When we left last year on March 13 we were very effective in transitioning to distance learning using the Google suite platform and being able to provide synchronous and asynchronous learning,” she continued. “Synchronous” describes students participating over the Internet with a class that’s happening in real time. “Asynchronous” might refer to a student viewing a lesson that was prerecorded.
Immediately upon being informed of the three-day closure, administrators set up a class schedule for students, Winch said.
“We were synchronous, meaning we were live through Google Meet, and students attended their classes as they normally would,” she said.
“All students have Chromebooks and all of our teachers have laptops,” she continued. “The classrooms are also set up with cameras...So if you need to show something on the board or have an interactive discussion with the class...you have the ability to do that.”
To prepare for possible quarantines or shutdowns, as well as to teach students who are distance learning full time, WHS teachers participated before school began in specialized professional development.
“The state allowed us additional days, which we took advantage of, and [we] supported our teachers with very specific professional development in technology and the use of equipment that would assist in not only teaching in person but simultaneously teaching the remote students as well,” Winch said.
“We’ve been really fortunate,” she continued. “We’re in a position where teachers can continue to deliver the curriculum in the most effective manner. We’re trying to avoid...hiccups for our students so they have continuous learning, whether they’re in the classroom or they’re learning remotely.”
As far as responses and concerns from parents, “[p]eople have been very good about it,” Charles said. There have been “many, many questions” with parents wanting “to confirm whether their child was exposed if they weren’t contacted.”
The district has received a number of “Are you sure?”–type questions.
“People are...rightly concerned,” Charles continued. “We’re just trying communicate to put people’s minds at ease. It was out of an abundance of caution” that the district designated so many students as needing to quarantine. “Everything [Faiella] did was in conjunction with the [state] Department of Public Health. I’m confident that we took all the necessary precautions that we should.”
Roughly two-thirds of WHS students returned to school in person on Sept. 17. Those students identified as having to quarantine will remain out of school until Monday, Sept. 28.
Faiella did not respond to requests for comment on this story.