Superintendent: Skowhegan area schools has had 12 positive cases of COVID-19 since year began - Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

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SKOWHEGAN — Maine School Administrative District 54 officials gathered at Skowhegan Area Middle School on Thursday evening to discuss the reopening plan, provide coronavirus updates and discuss other business.

As of Thursday evening, 269 individuals within the school district have been quarantined; 67 of those staff and there have been 12 positive cases since the school year began. Depending on how those cases are looked at, they can be tied to 10-11 incidents, Superintendent Jon Moody said.

“All of those incidents came from outside of school and we knew where they came from,” Moody said, saying that outdoor gatherings and other meeting places were easily identifiable, some from gatherings where masks were not worn, he said.

Because of how the district gathers information on these cases, the discussions between administrators and Maine Center for Disease Control & Prevention were a little easier, he added.

Right now, the entire sixth grade at Skowhegan Area Middle School is learning remotely after district officials closely monitored a positive case at the school. Like every other case of COVID-19 within the district, the virus was contracted outside of school. After speaking with local health professionals, Maine CDC and families in the district, the decision was made out of an abundance of caution to move the sixth grade to remote learning for the week. Grades seven and eight, also housed at the middle school, have been continuing under the hybrid model.

Somerset County was recently designated “yellow” under the Maine Department of Education’s reopening advisory system, meaning there is a moderate level of community risk and schools should consider precautions.

Should the county shift to “red” under the reopening plan, Assistant Superintendent Mark Hatch says that there is a plan in place for remote learning and each school within the district is working on preparing families.

“We want to make sure all families know what our ‘red’ plan is,” Hatch said. “All parents will receive a hard copy (of the “red” plan) as well as a schedule for their child. It’s just taking a bit of time for teachers to prepare.”

Within the next few days, families will be issued a single-page sheet of remote learning information, should the county designation shift to “red” around the holidays. Prior to going home for the December break, all students will bring home and test their technology to fix any hiccups in case the district has to go fully remote.

Moody also suggested that the district not turning snow days into remote learning days, recognizing that teachers and students need a break from hybrid/in-person learning.

“I think we should look at taking snow days this year,” Moody said. “We should allow them to be snow days. We’ve talked about the ability to do remote learning on snow days, but I think we should allow kids to be kids and staff to take a breath.”

The district has four snow days built into the year.

Moody also provided an update on last week’s water issue in Skowhegan, which closed Bloomfield Elementary, Margaret Chase Smith School, North Elementary School, Skowhegan Area Middle School, Skowhegan Area High School, Marti Stevens Learning Center, and Somerset Career & Technical Center. The decision to cancel school last Friday was made late the evening before. Moody classified the day as a snow day for those buildings and staff were not asked to come in.

“We did the right thing by not having school,” Moody said. “We were able to step up and deliver meals to families and over the weekend we received communication that we would receive bottled water.”

Schools reopened Monday and the do not drink order was lifted on Tuesday afternoon.

MSAD 54 serves the communities of Canaan, Cornville, Mercer, Norridgewock, Smithfield and Skowhegan.

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