Students in Maine School Administrative District 75 switched to full remote learning starting Tuesday after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, Interim Superintendent Robert Lucy announced in a letter to parents Monday.
“Due to the impact of this case on current staffing and the lack of substitutes to oversee needed services, the district must move to totally remote learning beginning tomorrow, April 27, through Thursday, May 6,” Lucy wrote.
In-person classes will resume on Friday, May 7.
MSAD 75 — which has seven schools serving Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Topsham — has hired additional teachers so the schools can space out students in accordance with the Maine Department of Education requirements.
Mt. Ararat Middle School students in grades seven and eight returned to the Topsham school full-time on March 22 followed by grade six on April 5. Elementary students in MSAD 75 also resumed full in-person learning starting April 5.
Mt. Ararat High School students continued to attend school through a mix of in-person and remote learning.
According to the school’s website, there have been three positive COVID-19 cases within MSAD 75 this week as of Monday. Another 70 individuals were determined to have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19. The district has reported a total of 66 positive COVID-19 cases throughout the school year, with 613 people determined as close contacts to someone with COVID-19.
While the district issued six notices in January about positive COVID-19 cases, only one notice was issued in February. This month, the district issued five notices to families prior to Monday’s announcement alerting them that students associated with four different buildings within the district tested positive for COVID-19.
The school was on April break last week.
Cases of COVID-19 are rising faster in Maine and other New England states than in much of the rest of the country — driven by a dramatic surge in infections among younger, unvaccinated people, the Portland Press Herald reported earlier this month. Public health experts believe the more than 150% increase since January among Mainers under age 30 is likely due to a complex combination of factors, from more transmissible variants to increased sports and social activities and “pandemic fatigue.”
The district’s announcement comes on the tails of the Brunswick School Department’s decision to move students to remote-only learning for three days this week after some members of the transportation staff had to be quarantined. This left the department without enough bus drivers to provide safe transportation, Superintendent Phil Potenziano previously said.
Last week, the district reported a COVID-19 outbreak at Brunswick High School with five active or probable cases, according to the school department’s website.
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