LISBON — Lisbon High School is closed this week after four individuals tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
There is no in-person or remote learning this week at the school. Lisbon opened to full in-person instruction in September and didn’t offer a remote-only option for students.
In a Friday message to the school community, Superintendent Richard Green wrote that the district learned Dec. 3 “that we have multiple individuals reporting that they are awaiting COVID-19 test results as they may or were potentially exposed during the Thanksgiving break.”
Green said Monday that some families contacted the school department to notify them of positive COVID-19 test results. He said most of the concern about new cases of COVID-19 at the high school stemmed from rumors and social media posts, which the school district investigated over the weekend.
By Monday, four people at the high school had tested positive for COVID-19, along with one person at Philip W. Sugg Middle School. Some of the cases are within the same families, Green said.
A contributing factor in the decision to close Lisbon High School is ongoing repairs to the building’s HVAC system. Contractors are also repairing windows in the building during the school day.
The repairs will be paid for with federal coronavirus pandemic aid funding that requires the work to be complete before the end of December.
The other schools in the district remain on their normal schedules.
The school department is still performing contact tracing, tracking who had close contact with the individuals who have COVID-19 so that they can quarantine.
Green said the school department will notify parents with individual phone calls over the next several days if their children are among those who had close contact with someone with COVID-19.
Green said the district is waiting for instruction from the Maine CDC.
While students have followed safety protocols inside the schools, Green said, “it’s what’s going on on the outside” that is having an impact.
As of Sunday, there had been 12,907 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Maine and 1,573 confirmed cases in Androscoggin County, the Maine CDC reports. As of Nov. 29, there have been 30 cases of COVID-19 in Lisbon and 36 cases in Lisbon Falls.
Green said Monday that students will make up missed days at the end of the school year.
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