The Auburn and Lewiston school departments announced positive COVID-19 tests in their respective school systems Thursday, and spring sports in both cities are feeling the effects.
In Auburn, single positive tests of students at Auburn Middle School and Edward Little High School caused Edward Little to go to remote learning Friday. Extra- and co-curricular activities have been suspended until Monday, when in-person instruction at the school is also scheduled to resume.
The closure of in-person instruction Friday was “because of the impact of quarantine requirements on staffing,” according to a letter sent by the Auburn School Department. The letter didn’t mention any effect on in-person instruction at Auburn Middle School.
The positive test in Lewiston was the latest of many this week in the school system, according to an email from Superintendent Jake Langlais. His email said there have been positive tests each day this week through Thursday, and that “some impact schools and some do not.”
The positive test announced Thursday came from a student at Lewiston High School, and was connected to an existing case outside of the school, Langlais wrote in a community letter. The student who tested positive is enrolled in the fully-remote cohort C, so there are no academic close contacts. The positive test does affect some athletics at Lewiston High School.
“Through contact tracing, connected to a banquet and a spring sports team, there are numerous close contacts in need of quarantine,” Langlais’ letter said. “Tracing this situation has additional complications due to the events attended.”
Langlais’ email said a winter sports team has also been impacted. The winter season for high school sports ended in March. The teams affected were not announced. Lewiston High School Athletic Director Jason Fuller declined to comment on which teams are affected, only saying there are multiple.
Langlais’ email said Lewiston schools “are at our capacity for coverage in several schools at this time. I will communicate out as soon as possible any updates to these situations.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.