Crossett Brook Middle School was one of the first two public schools in Vermont to receive the news that students had tested positive for COVID-19.
Locally, two students who attended school on September 8, received positive test results. They were asymptomatic.
Crossett Brook won’t be the last school to get this news as schools across the state work to keep students and staff safe. Hartford High School has also had a case. Crossett Brook was closed for the week because the timing of the COVID case reports was such that contact tracers couldn’t get started until Monday morning and without their work, it wasn’t possible to know who did or did not have to quarantine.
What’s important to learn from this is that while it was alarming, the wheels didn’t come off the bus. The established state and local protocols worked. There was some hair-on-fire reaction initially, but ultimately science and data calmed things down a bit. It’s very likely that sporadic cases and clusters will pop up in our schools as well as across the state. Viruses live to spread.
This first trial run showed that whether a school closes for a week (Crossett Brook Middle School) or reopens after deep cleaning (Hartford High School) that it might be possible to keep schools open, at least partially. The interactions of the school district with the Vermont Department of Health were coordinated, cordial, professional and interactive. Our district leaders learned valuable lessons about testing, contact tracing and communication that they shared with the state and with the community.
We’re cautiously optimistic even as COVID test results of the 24 close contacts associated with the Crossett Brook cases are anticipated. But we’re still cautious and we cannot let our guard down.
We’ve heard over and over again that COVID in schools will reflect COVID in our communities. We know what we need to do to keep our state’s rate so low that Vermont earned the praise of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at Governor Phil Scott’s September 15 press conference where he appeared by video link.
Wear a mask. Stay 6-feet apart. Wash your hands. Stay home if you’re sick. Please.
