The East End Community School in Portland will go remote for the week starting Monday after five COVID-19 cases were detected there, officials said Sunday.
Portland school officials did not specify whether the people infected were students, parents or staff members, but said they were spread across three households. Officials cited health privacy laws in withholding information about individual cases.
Eighty close contacts were asked to quarantine, Tess Nacelewicz, communications coordinator for Portland Public Schools, said in a news release Sunday afternoon. Those who came into contact with the infected people have already been notified, Nacelewicz said.
The school, on North Street on Munjoy Hill, will be closed to in-person instruction from Monday through Friday.
The five COVID-19 cases were detected over the past week, which led the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to designate the school an outbreak site, according to the news release.
“While an outbreak designation does not require a school closure, the combination of the high number of close contacts and the number of staff required to quarantine led the district to decide to shift EECS students and staff to remote learning for the coming week,” Nacelewicz said. “EECS students and families will receive communication from teachers regarding remote experiences and assignments.”
Community child care programs associated with East End Community School also will be closed this coming week. Meals will be available for East End students from 1 to 2 p.m. at four different schools: Portland, Deering and Casco Bay high schools, as well as Talbot Community School.
School officials are planning for now to reopen the East End school for in-person instruction on Jan. 19, the day after after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
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