COVID-19 case sends Harwood Union MS/HS into remote learning Thursday-Friday
November 12, 2020 | By Lisa ScagliottiClasses at Harwood Union Middle and High School will be remote today and Friday as state public health officials work on contract tracing for several dozen individuals after one adult at the school tested positive for COVID-19.
Harwood Union Middle and High School in Duxbury has shifted to all-remote learning until contact tracing indicates next steps after on positive case of COVID-19 was identified this week. File photo by Gordon Miller.
Superintendent Brigid Nease wrote to families in the district late Wednesday afternoon that the campus would be closed for in-person instruction for the rest of the week “out of an abundance of caution and to give the contact tracers adequate time to complete their work.”
The shift to remote learning at Harwood would not impact any of the district’s other schools, all of which were to remain open following their usual schedules Thursday and Friday.
The news in the Harwood Union Unified School District came on the same day the state of Vermont Department of Health reported a record 72 new COVID-19 cases across the state, two more than the highest single-day case total in April at the start of the pandemic.
Daily case counts have been climbing steadily in recent weeks with spikes in the 20s; Tuesday saw a jump to 46 cases and Wednesday’s increase to 72 was up more than 56%. Washington County has logged the second-highest number of new cases in the state in the past 14 days with 66; Chittenden County with 139 cases for that same period leads the state.
At Harwood Union, Thursday and Friday are days students usually attend school in person in grades 7-8 in the middle school and in grades 9-12 in the high school which are physically connected and share faculty, staff, and common areas.
“We will thoroughly clean the building and determine what if any further steps are warranted before Monday,” Nease wrote, adding that there would be no athletic activities for the two days as well.
School officials were notified Wednesday morning that one adult from the school had tested positive. Nease explained that school administrators then put together a list of about 40 people the individual had contact with at school to share with the Vermont Health Department for contact tracing. School officials will also notify those on the list by noon Thursday of their status and to alert them to expect to hear from state contact tracers.
“We recommend that if you get a call from the school district and until you are cleared by [Vermont Health Department], which could take a couple of days, that you lay low and self quarantine,” Nease wrote.
Interviews with state health staff will determine who needs to quarantine and get tested; quarantine may also be recommended for students who attend other schools but who are siblings of a close contact of the infected individual.
Nease asked that families be alert for these calls and to cooperate with the tracing process. “Please answer the phone if the Health Department contacts you. The number may not be familiar to you and does not come up as [Vermont Department of Health],” Nease wrote.
Absenteeism among both students and staff at Harwood was “notably up” so far this week Nease added. Given the timeline with the infected individual, however, those who may have been in close contact will not be able to be tested until Monday, Nov. 16.
Nease briefed the Harwood Union School Board on the latest developments at the start of Wednesday evening’s board meeting.
“I fully expect and hope that we can not have things expand within our district and we’ll be looking at back to in-person instruction on Monday,” Nease said, but added that it would not be clear if that will be the case until the contact tracing process was further along.
Recap of school precautions
Like many districts in Vermont this school year, the Harwood Union Unified School District has been running schools at its seven campuses in a hybrid model due to the coronavirus pandemic and public health restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus.
Students have had the choice of learning completely remotely, or partially in-person and at home. The latter has had students in grades preK-6 in the district’s schools attending in person four days a week since the end of October with Wednesdays remote for all students. Those in grades 7-12 have remained in the hybrid configuration since September with students attending in school two days a week and remote for three days. That allows classes to be split into two groups attending different two-day stretches each week.
All students and staff are required to wear masks in school and on school buses; students are screened before entering school with a temperature check and a questionnaire that includes asking about symptoms.
COVID-19 is highly contagious although individuals may be infected and contagious without signs of symptoms which include fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea, according to the health department.
Because COVID-19 is understood to be transmitted in droplets when an infected person coughs, sneezes or even speaks, distancing among students, teachers and staff is required by public health guidelines throughout the school day. Distancing is three feet for younger students up to sixth grade and six feet apart for older students.
Teacher testing on Monday
Gov. Phil Scott and state public health officials in recent days have announced new measures to address the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Vermont. The state now is requiring all individuals entering Vermont after non-essential travel quarantine for 14 days or for one week followed by a COVID-19 test. Previous efforts to update a map of the region to designate areas “safe” to travel to and from without quarantine requirements have been suspended as cases throughout the northeast have mounted.
The state also is strongly advising Vermonters to limit indoor gatherings to 10 people or fewer, not mixing individuals from many different households. That’s because public health data tracking the increasing cases have shown indoor gatherings such as birthday and dinner parties to be the source of recent virus spread.
Another measure state officials announced this week is an effort to offer voluntary testing for school teachers and staff across Vermont with a goal of offering testing once a month for educators.
Nease told the school board Wednesday that the Harwood Union district is scheduled for its testing day on Monday, Nov. 16, and that teachers and staff needed to sign up to request a test. Testing kits will be delivered early on Monday to Thatcher Brook Primary School where staff will sort supplies and then visit each school in the district to collect the testing samples during the school day, she said.
As for any greater changes in school operations going forward, Nease explained that the district is able to respond to circumstances to send a class, a team, a school or even multiple schools into remote mode temporarily, but it cannot shift its operations entirely to a different level without specific state guidance.
“The goal that [the state] has set for us is to keep schools open as much as possible,” Nease said. “When we go remote it would be because of positive cases or because we cannot staff a school.”
Schools presently are in “step 3” as described by the state Agency of Education, the level encouraging the most in-person instruction as possible. Step 2 denotes a hybrid combination of in-person and remote learning; Step 1 is fully remote.
“This is all we talk about all day. Everything is fluctuating all the time,” Nease said. “I wouldn't doubt that there will be some further guidance from the state because the numbers are rising pretty quickly. I just have to take it one day at a time.”
Much more information about COVID-19 testing, state case data, etc. is online at the Vermont Department of Health, healthvermont.gov/covid-19.