OTISFIELD — An unprecedented spike of in-school transmission of COVID-19 at Otisfield Community School has forced students to learn remotely starting Thursday.

The school will reopen Jan. 4.

The Oxford Hills School District website reported 79 of the school’s 116 students and one staff member were in quarantine, and there were nine positive cases of the virus.

Superintendent Monica Henson said Tuesday that Maine School Administrative District 17 medical director, Dr. Kate Herlihy, “has advised that we close Otisfield for the rest of this week.”

Henson posted on the district’s Facebook page that the rate of infection at Otisfield far exceeds anything the district has experienced since the start of the pandemic.

Classes will be remote Monday and Tuesday for staff training, which had been planned, Henson wrote. “Holiday vacation begins Wednesday, Dec. 22.

School Principal Jessika Sheldrick and Food Services Director Michael Mayberry will coordinate with a School Messenger survey to determine food service needs for shelf-stable meals, Henson said.

As of Wednesday, Paris Elementary School reported 69 students and two staff were in quarantine, and there were eight positive cases. Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris had 46 out of 478 students in quarantine and 11 positive cases.

With the highly contagious delta variant pushing Maine’s health care system to the brink and the even more transmissible omicron variant on the threshold, Henson had a simple message for Oxford Hills: “Parents, please get vaccinated and vaccinate your children who are old enough.”

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filed under:
coronavirus, otisfield maine, Oxford Hills, sad 17
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