The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
2 Middletown schools move to remote learning
MIDDLETOWN — Two city education facilities have shifted to distance learning due to three new COVID cases at the middle school and a lack of teachers at one elementary school, an overall situation that has caused the quarantine of nearly 250 individuals across the district.
A staff member and two students at Moody Elementary School recently tested positive for COVID- 19, and a number of Woodrow Wilson Middle School staff are in self- isolation due to coronavirus- related cases there, Superintendent of Schools Michael Conner said earlier this week.
As of late Tuesday afternoon, 170 students and 78 staff members are in quarantine after coming in contact with someone who has COVID- 19. Data is derived from the schools’ COVID tracker, a list of cases at each of the 11 schools, which is updated daily. Middletown High School has the most people in quarantine — 121 — followed by Woodrow Wilson, with 98.
Districtwide, among those now isolating there are 10 students who tested positive for the coronavirus and six staff. Based on analysis of the district’s contact tracing protocols, and working in conjunction with the health department, a decision was
made for Moody to operate remotely until Nov. 23. WWMS students are set to return to classes Nov. 16.
Between the Wilson and Moody schools, approximately 30 to 40 staff members may have been exposed to COVID- 19, causing a deficit in teachers so great it necessitated reverting to distance learning, Conner said. He stressed these people have not tested positive, but were in close enough contact to merit their isolation. “Right now, it’s a case- bycase, school- by- school basis.”
The city is the first site statewide to try out a pilot rapid COVID testing initiative with a mobile testing site available Wednesdays at any of nine schools. Late last week, Gov. Ned Lamont, state Board of Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona, Mayor Ben Florsheim, Conner and other officials said the goal is to expand the program at schools throughout Connecticut.
Within one week of the launch, a potential outbreak at the high school was contained quickly by participation in a real- time BinaxNOW testing initiative in conjunction with the Community Health Center.
“Thank God for the announcement last week. Thank God we are increasing that testing capacity,” Florsheim said. “Thank God we now have a President- elect who is going to be really focusing on making sure testing continues to be distributed. The next frontier for this disease is going to be universal, frequent testing for everybody to normalize testing in the way we normalized masks.
“Our schools are the tip of the spear in that effort,” Florsheim said. “What follows in the months ahead is going to be more at-home testing, that sort of thing.
“One of the things we know is the transition rate in schools is a lot lower on average for community spread,” Florsheim said.
People taking the initiative to get tested, whether they have symptoms or not, has really helped mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, Conner said.
This capacity, combined with other safety actions, has created an even stronger defense against widespread cases, Conner said.
“That triad has increased the sophistication around how to be able to address some of the most persistent issues with the coronavirus.”
During the week of Nov. 1, there were 52 total positive cases citywide. On Oct. 25, there were 56, Oct. 18, had 46, and Oct. 11, there were 30, according to Middletown’s COVID- 19 summary.
Florsheim, who called the situation “concerning,” is nonetheless pleased with how the Board of Education is handling the situation. “As unfortunate as it is that this is happening, it was also, on some level, inevitable.”
In mid-March, when districts across the state moved to a remote learning model, Middletown was ahead of the curve, the mayor said. “We were so forward thinking and advanced when it came to digital learning. We already had 1: 1 laptops for students, who were familiar with that platform, all the way through K- 12 in different iterations, depending on what grade level they’re in.”
In September, the semester began in hybrid format. “The idea was we need to be prepared for a potential spike, and to prepare for that in a way that tries to keep as many kids in school for as many days as possible,” the mayor said.
That positioned the district for potential outbreaks, such as the one at the high school. “We quarantined that school until contact tracing could be completed, until testing could be administered, and we have a solid grasp of the data,” Florsheim said. “We don’t want to close the whole district, open it up in two weeks, only to have to shut it down a few days later when the same thing happens again.”
After the Thanksgiving holiday, the Board of Education, in consultation with the health department, so far plans for students to return to the hybrid model — but that depends on the number of cases and quarantined individuals. “This is going to be based off of environmental statistics and what science is saying,” Conner said.
Middletown is in a unique position in its ability to offer rapid testing. The goal of the public schools has always been “being sure every child receives a high- quality education,” the mayor said.
The key is cooperation between the city and schools, Florsheim said. “We can do both of those things at the same time, it’s just going to require vigilance — and a lot of testing. That’s what allowed us to catch these cases and quarantine people before there are outbreaks.”
“We have learned a lot as a community during the eight months of the pandemic. Our lifestyle has radically changed, but we still maintain one common theme as a community — together we will defeat COVID- 19,” the superintendent wrote in a letter to parents Sunday.
The mobile lab will be at Lawrence Elementary School on Kaplan Drive Wednesday from 10 a. m. to 2 p. m. For information, visit the city’s COVID summary at middletownct.gov or the district’s COVID tracker at bit. ly/3pjsy8o.