MEXICO — Region 9 School of Applied Technology and Regional School Unit 56 schools are closed for three days after two students were confirmed to have COVID-19, Director Brenda Gammon said Monday.
The state mandates schools be cleaned after confirmed cases.
Students started classes in both schools last week.
An announcement posted on Region 9’s Facebook page Monday morning said any student and staff member who may have had close contact with the two students who tested positive will be quarantined for 14 days and affected families will be contacted individually.
After posting an initial announcement Monday morning on Facebook of one confirmed case, Gammon said she received a call from the Maine Center for Disease Control of a second confirmed case.
The school takes students from SAD 44’s Telstar High School, RSU 10’s Mountain Valley High School, and RSU 56’s Dirigo High School.
Officials of RSU 56, involving the towns of Canton, Carthage, Dixfield and Peru, posted that a student in that school system recently tested positive for COVID-19. And, according to a notice posted on the district’s website Monday morning, because there is a possibility that other staff or students came in contact with this individual and therefore may be exposed to the virus, all RSU 56 schools will be closed for three days.
“Out of an abundance of caution, all RSU 56 schools will be closed for 72 hours for thorough sanitizing and disinfecting. All students will be receiving remote instruction during the next three days,” read the notice from RSU 56 Superintendent Pam Doyen.
Classes will resume as scheduled on Friday.
In her message to students and parents, Doyen asked everyone to self-monitor and to call a health care provider if they experience any COVID-19 symptoms.
Doyen said the Maine CDC or a school representative will contact families directly if their student is identified as a close contact of someone who tested positive.
If they have had close contact, those students — even if they have tested negative for COVID-19 — will be asked to quarantine for 14 days from exposure to the positive students.
RSU 10 Superintendent Deb Alden noted that a student from that district tested positive for COVID-19, but the student only attended the Region 9 school and not RSU 10 schools. “They have only attended school at Region 9, one of our CTE schools,” Alden said in a letter on Monday. For that reason, RSU 10 schools, hosting students from Rumford, Mexico, Buckfield, Hanover, Hartford, Mexico and Sumner, were not closing.
Officials of SAD 44, including Telstar High School in Bethel, posted a notice on the district’s website Monday saying their schools were not closing.
According to the notice, one of the infected students — who is not from Telstar — was on the Region 9 campus last Wednesday, a day when no Telstar students were there so there was no exposure to any Telstar student.
Region 9 students who are enrolled in the school’s Early Childhood Education and Automotive programs will learn remotely for 14 days, while students in all other programs will return Thursday and Friday, according to school officials.
For people who have questions about the procedures in RSU 56, call Doyen 207-562-4251. In Region 9, call 207-364-3764.
In RSU 10, call the Central Office at 207-369-5560. And, in SAD 44, call the high school office at 207-824-2136.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
