Schools reports six novel coronavirus cases

The Amherst Exempted Village Schools district recently reported three positive novel coronavirus cases out of Powers Elementary School and one case from Marion L. Steele High School Nov. 6.

Another case from Steele High and one from Amherst Junior High School was also reported Nov. 10.

Superintendent Steve Sayers said that although he is unsure of how many people are quarantined at the elementary school in relation to the cases, he believes it to be around two or three additional people.

The district is following Lorain County Public Health protocol by further sanitizing the schools that have reported cases and cooperating with the contact tracing process, Sayers said.

A district-wide email was sent to staff and families Nov. 6, which gave an update on protocol and the cases reported.

“Whenever we have a positive case in our district, we always do additional deep cleaning in those classrooms,” Sayers said. “We have a process we’ve been following since the first day of the school year.”

He said he attended a county-wide superintendents meeting Nov. 6, that normally occurs every Friday, to receive updates from Lorain County Health Commissioner Dave Covell.

“He’s indicating that there has been an increase in the number of cases in Lorain County,” Sayers said. “However, what they’re seeing is that it’s not spreading in the schools.

“His concern is that what’s happening and what they’re finding is that it’s occurring through social gatherings, and get togethers beyond the school day.”

In other words, it’s what students are doing outside of school hours that is perpetuating the spread of the virus, not necessarily the act of going to school, Sayers said.

Cases also are treated differently depending on where they come from in the district.

Sayers said having five cases, for example, in a district and five cases in a classroom are vastly different.

“We’ve been able to avoid that,” he said. “None of our cases have been clustered together in the same room.”