This story has been updated.
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Students at Zippel Elementary School were dismissed early on Thursday and won’t return to in-person classes for nearly two weeks after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19.
Zippel students will not resume in-person instruction until Dec. 16 due to the number of staff members required to quarantine for two weeks after being in close contact with the employee who tested positive, Superintendent Ben Greenlaw said in a written statement.
“We simply do not have enough substitute teachers and staff to safely and effectively provide in-person instruction at Zippel in this situation,” Greenlaw said.
Zippel students will not have class on Friday and will learn remotely beginning on Monday. Staff will use Friday to prepare their remote learning curriculum, Greenlaw said.
A day after the announcement, Greenlaw said that all SAD 1 schools would close for remote learning after two people connected to the district tested positive for COVID-19. Those students will return to in-person classes on Dec. 14, though that could change with future developments, Greenlaw said.
SAD 1 and Zippel officials have notified “close contacts” of the staff member about the positive test and are instructing them to quarantine for 14 days, Greenlaw said. He said the district school does not consider anyone they do not contact to be at risk.
Greenlaw said SAD 1 officials had contacted the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and are following its guidance on school COVID-19 cases.
Students were dismissed from Zippel at 11:10 a.m. on Thursday. Other SAD 1 schools were dismissed at their standard times that day, including nearby Presque Isle High School.
The early release came as Aroostook County saw a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases: as of Dec. 6, there have been 195 total cases in The County, a number that has doubled since Nov. 21, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. There are 75 active cases.
While there have been COVID-19 cases connected to SAD 1 schools, including the spouse of an SAD 1 employee and a student who had not attended class in the week before their COVID-19 test, Zippel was the first school in the district to close because of the virus.
Other schools in the Presque Isle area, including those in Easton, Washburn and Mars Hill, have had temporary stops to in-person learning due to COVID-19 cases within their walls.
The decision echoed Greenlaw’s statement in a Nov. 18 SAD 1 school board meeting that the district would transition any school with an active case to hybrid or fully remote learning, but that a positive case likely would not lead to a district-wide shutdown of in-person instruction.
That calculation changed after two more COVID-19 cases were found in the district on Friday, though it is unclear whether the cases were staff members or students, and what school or schools they attended.
