COVID cases found in New Haven, West Haven schools

NEW HAVEN — Staff members who work in four schools have tested positive for COVID-19, the district’s top official said.

New Haven Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey said she learned from the city Health Department late Monday that four staff members at different schools — Lincoln-Bassett, Brennan-Rogers, Nathan Hale and Elm City Montessori — tested positive for the virus.

Tracey said she informed the relevant school communities as soon as possible, but there was no risk to any students.

“School is not in session,” she said Tuesday.

Further, in West Haven, students in a classroom at Savin Rock Community School are being quarantined after one of the students tested positive for COVID-19, the fourth positive case in the district since schools reopened Sept. 8, Superintendent of Schools Neil Cavallaro confirmed Tuesday.

Since reopening there have been two positive cases at West Haven High School, one at Bailey Middle School and now the student at Savin Rock Community School.

In New Haven, Tracey said that in two of the four schools some other staff members who may have come into close contact with staff who tested positive were asked to remain in quarantine.

Although instruction has been happening since Sept. 3 when school began, buildings have been closed to students after the

Board of Education voted for remote-only instruction for the first marking period, which ends in November.

Elm City Montessori, a local charter that is operated independently, has been offering a mix of remote and in-person instruction for students who want it and Lincoln-Bassett and Brennan-Rogers are among a number of district schools that reopened for about three to five special education students per building at a time in self-contained classrooms.

Teaching staff have the option of working from their buildings, and other employees — such as custodial and cafeteria workers — remain on site to do their jobs.

Although positive tests of school employees led to a 24-hour closure of buildings over the summer for disinfecting, Tracey said the district is doing a deep disinfecting of only areas touched by those who tested positive.

“It might be a classroom” instead of the entire building, she said.

Tracey declined to share the job titles of those who tested positive, and said they might not be teachers when asked whether the positive tests would impact instructional staffing.

Cavallaro noted that the cases in the

West Haven schools have occurred at different times.

He could not give details of the cases, but said this is the first case at the elementary school at 50 Park St, which serves students in pre-K through fifth grade.

As is the procedure, students in the class have been quarantined and contact tracing is underway “with staff and others,” Cavallaro said.

Elementary school students stay in one room, he said, so only the classroom is involved.