COVID-19 cases halt in-person learning
500 Rio Rancho students are quarantined; Eldorado campus on remote classes for two weeks
Just a week into students in New Mexico going back to school for in-person learning, COVID-19 outbreaks on several dozen campuses have forced both students and teachers to temporarily return home — either to recover from the virus or to quarantine.
The principal of Eldorado High School in Albuquerque announced Monday afternoon that the school will close its campus and switch to remote learning for two weeks beginning Tuesday (today) after several students tested positive for COVID-19.
At Albuquerque Public Schools, 35 cases of COVID-19 were reported last week, involving 16 schools, an APS spokeswoman said.
Parents at Eisenhower and Cleveland Middle Schools received notification of positive tests on Monday.
“It’s no surprise,” said Monica Armenta of APS, “There is no way you can have a pandemic and not be affected like this.”
Menaul School, a privately run institution for grades six through 12 in Albuquerque, stopped in-person learning as of Monday after an undisclosed number of students came down with the virus last week. The school’s 200 students will go online for instruction for the next two weeks.
In the Rio Rancho Public School District, about 500 students, and nearly 40 teachers and staff members potentially exposed to the coronavirus entered quarantine on April 5 because of potential exposure, according to its website.
Nearly 40 classrooms, and parts of cafeterias and Rio Rancho school buses have been shut down temporarily for disinfection. Thirteen students and two employees were reported as testing positive for COVID-19 in the past week.
A 10-day quarantine is required of anyone considered a “close contact” of a student or employee who tests positive for coronavirus, according to the state Public Education Department.
A close contact is defined as all students and staff who were in the same classroom
as the infected individual, those on the same bus and those who came within six feet of the infected individual (even while wearing a mask) for longer than three minutes.
The closure of Eldorado High School for in-person learning came after the school experienced four “rapid responses” by the PED in 14 days. That is the state threshold that triggers a temporary return to remote-only instruction.
A “rapid response” occurs when a school has at least two positive cases.
All but one of the cases at Eldorado appear to have occurred off-campus, said principal Martin C. Sandoval in a letter to students, families and staff.
All practices, activities and competitions involving Eldorado students have been canceled for two weeks.
Under the reopening plan, parents and student can still choose remote learning.
‘It’s really sad’
Though the state pushed COVID-19 vaccinations for teachers before the reopening, some are in quarantine because they aren’t considered fully vaccinated — and exempt from quarantine — until 10 days after their second shot.
That has resulted in students meeting in the classroom at one Albuquerque middle school, but being taught by a quarantined teacher working remotely from home. Other students have been told to meet in the library, cafeteria or gyms for remote learning with their teachers.
Elsewhere around the state, 45 students at Mayfield High School in Las Cruces must quarantine after a student tested positive last week, according to a report by KVIA.com.
“It’s really sad we can’t get through even a week of school without cases,” one parent said Monday.
Heeding a call from federal officials, state PED Secretary Ryan Stewart announced a push in early March for fully reopening in-person learning in schools by April 5.
It’s the first time since the start of the pandemic a year ago that the state permitted “full reentry” for K-12 schools across the state.
School administrators are required to report positive cases to the PED within four hours of the school being notified and provide a “COVID-19 Positive Case Letter” to all staff and families within six hours, according to the PED website.
On Monday, a PED spokeswoman said the agency couldn’t provide total numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported by schools statewide since April 5.
“We stopped counting individual cases back in the fall because that figure included many who were never on campus while infectious,” said a PED spokeswoman. She said the PED counts those schools where a “rapid response” intervention by state officials occurs because at least two positive cases were reported.
As of Monday, the state reported 10 schools across the state as warranting a “rapid response” in the past 14 days.
They were: Alamorgordo High and Chaparral Middle School in Alamogordo; Country Club Elementary and Esperanza Elementary in Farmington; Hobbs High School; Eldorado High, Manzano High and Petroglyph Elementary in Albuquerque; Nizhoni Elementary in Shiprock; and Rio Rancho High School.
‘Ups and downs’ to be expected
Armenta, from APS, said it isn’t clear yet how many of the district’s 75,000 students have opted to return in person, but estimates range from 40% at some schools to 90% at others.
The return to a traditional instruction model was deemed less risky by state officials, in part because the state Department of Health stepped up COVID-19 vaccinations of teachers and school staff in March.
About 68% of teachers, staff and early education professionals who registered for a vaccine with the state Department of Health have received both doses. Some 84% of registrants in the education category are partly vaccinated, according to a DOH vaccine dashboard.
William Gonzales, choir director and exploratory music teacher at Eisenhower Middle School in Albuquerque, informed parents in an email over the weekend that his first period mix/treble choir class was sent home Friday to quarantine for 10 days due to possible exposure.
And he must quarantine because he is still in the 10-day window from his second vaccination dose. So, he will be teaching remotely from home.
At the private Menaul School in Albuquerque, last week marked the first outbreak of COVID-19 at the school.
Lindsey Gilbert, head of school, attributed the new cases to the fact that students had been on spring break in late March.
Until last week, the school had transitioned to in-person learning 25 weeks ago “without an issue,” Gilbert said.
The “little ups and downs” of teaching students in a pandemic are to be expected, he added.