Dr. Youngberg and her team met virtually with Dr. Lynn Sosa, Deputy State Epidemiologist and Patrice Sulik, our local Health Director to plan for outbreak testing at Windham Center School on Wednesday, December 15th.
The decision to focus on Windham Center School was made based on the fact that had the highest number of positive cases last week, a likely in class transmission and the highest percentage of students in quarantine and isolation, districtwide. Outbreak testing is available to all students and staff from Windham Center School who are currently healthy and in attendance on Wednesday. The testing is designed to help the Department of Public Health and the District to determine if it’s safe to keep that school building open. Windham Center School parents, while the decision to have your children tested for COVID is obviously a personal one, I am strongly encouraging the testing as a way to help us to ensure safety for the entire school community. If the outbreak testing uncovers a number of asymptomatic positive cases amongst the Windham Center students and staff, that school would be moved to virtual learning for the school days leading up to our holiday break. Windham Center parents, your children should be coming home with a COVID testing permission slip that should be signed and returned to school tomorrow. Parents are also welcome to join their children for the COVID testing on Wednesday. We will need to safely coordinate Windham Center parents coming on campus during the outbreak testing. Please look for signs on campus and follow up communication from Ms. Goodwin, Windham Center principal.
We continue to monitor all of schools’ COVID data very carefully and are making adjustments to our practice accordingly. Please continue to help us at home by wearing masks, washing your hands frequently, avoiding large crowds, staying home if you are sick (students and employees), following all close contact protocols and getting vaccinated and boostered. I thank you very much for your continued support and will be back in touch with any new information.