LEWISTON — A fifth-grader at McMahon Elementary School has tested positive for COVID-19, Superintendent Jake Langlais announced Monday.
The student attends classes Thursday and Friday. All pupils in the class, a total of nine, will be under quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure, which was Thursday, Sept. 17.
They will be required to engage in remote instruction until Oct. 2, Langlais wrote in a statement.
He said the sick pupil does not take the bus and there was no crossover between this class and others. The student left the classroom Thursday with an upset stomach, Langlais said.
The teacher of the class will continue to attend school and work with students.
“Each situation is unique,” Langlais said when asked about the teacher. “We work with the teacher impacted to assess what our next steps are with that unique situation.”
He told the School Committee on Monday night that he and his COVID Response Team talked to the teacher about the level of exposure. The teacher was wearing all of their personal protective equipment and was not in close proximity to the student, he said.
“Today’s conversation was about what do you want to do,” Langlais said, adding that the teacher’s comfort level was taken into account and he would fully support any decision.
He said he was notified Monday morning that a McMahon student had tested positive.
“I was contacted by the principal (and) the nurse, and have been in communication with state officials regarding the information available and our next steps,” he said.
Students in quarantine will be contacted directly by the Maine Center for Disease Control contact tracers and school personnel, the superintendent said.
“If you have not been contacted by staff, or the CDC there is no interruption to your school or other schools at this time,” he said.
A student at Park Avenue Elementary School in Auburn has tested positive and is in quarantine. That pupil had not yet attended school this year.
Also, a staffer at Connors Elementary School in Lewiston was in quarantine last week pending a COVID-19 test. The staff person had been in close contact with a family member who tested positive.
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