GORHAM — With a number of its staff quarantined, Gorham High School returned Wednesday to remote learning like last spring.
A message on the Gorham School Department website early Wednesday said the high school would be “moving to remote learning” but that switching from this fall’s hybrid model (half in person, half remote) was not directly related to COVID-19. A note from Superintendent Heather Perry on the site said a large number of staff were out.
The number of identified COVID-19 cases in Gorham schools has risen recently.
“The more cases associated with the schools, the more we are having to send home both students and staff to quarantine as close contacts for 10 days,” Perry said Wednesday in an email to the American Journal. “We can only send home just so many staff before leaving ourselves vulnerable to having to make decisions similar to what we had to do this morning.”
Perry said the school stayed open Tuesday after several staff members were sent home, but Wednesday morning a few more teachers remained home with family emergencies and the district didn’t have enough substitutes.
She denied it was a walkout.
“They have not and they would not ever walk out on our students,” Perry said.
Plans for the school’s return to the hybrid learning model were to be announced later Wednesday after the American Journal deadline.
The development followed a video sent Monday to parents and staff from Perry hoping to keep schools open. Gorham schools have had 20 COVID-19 cases since opening under the hybrid model in September.
In the video, Perry said all the cases so far originated outside of schools.
“It tells me our schools are really safe places to be right now,” Perry said.
As of Dec. 8, the high school has five positive cases; Gorham Middle School, three; Narragansett Elementary School, three; and Great Falls Elementary School, one. Village Elementary school has none.
The high school number Tuesday increased from two on Nov. 29, while on Nov. 30 the middle school had two and Narragansett, one. An updated list of schools and number of positive cases can be found at gorhamschools.org.
The Gorham School District has 2,759 students and 500 employees.
The School Department has not released whether the identified cases involved staff, in-person students or students who opted for remote learning.
“We’re going to try to keep our schools open,” Perry said in the video.
A parent, Tammy Smith, told the American Journal, “It is a nightmare getting kids to do anything on remote. Major kudos go out to all teachers out there.”
The School Committee was to discuss COVID-19 data in an executive session at the end of its regular monthly meeting Wednesday night in the high school. Board members were to meet in person but were to include a Zoom stream for the public to reduce the number of people entering the building.
“As always, the Gorham schools remain prepared to move to red (remote) but are working hard to stay in our yellow (hybrid) model of learning,” School Committee Chairperson Darryl Wright told town councilors last week.
Perry said in her Monday video if a positive case impacted a lot of staff then we would have to go “red.”
Perry said that a scenario of “three or more cases associated with a single school within a 14-day period” would be reported to the Maine Department of Education and referred to the Maine CDC. If categorized as an outbreak, the CDC would assign an investigator.
The Maine CDC reports the Gorham zip code had 170 probable and confirmed cases through Nov. 29.
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