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Schools around the state continue to surge in coronavirus cases

Due to the post-holiday season surge in coronavirus cases caused by the omicron variant, the number of Maine schools rated as experiencing a coronavirus “outbreak” has more than quadrupled in the past week, according to data compiled by the Maine Department of Education.Outbreak status now means 15% or more of a school’s total students and staff have tested positive for the virus, a higher bar than the previous threshold of three confirmed cases during a two-week period.MDOE listed 8 such schools as of Jan. 13 and 35 as of Jan. 20. (The outbreak schools are highlighted in orange on its web page).MDOE counted 8,673 cases in schools during the past 30 days.Portland High School reported the most positive cases — 138 — during the past 30 days, according to MDOE. However, the school district shared data with WMTW showing 153 confirmed positive cases this month.“I’m not particularly scared or more worried than I usually would be,” said Mike Podolsky, a Portland parent of two fully vaccinated boys enrolled at different outbreak schools, Portland High and Casco Bay High School. “Take the precautions you need to take. Do the things you need to do to protect yourself, you can’t let it ruin your life. You can’t let it run your life.”No Maine district is currently hit harder by the pandemic than Portland, where 12 of the 16 public schools are in outbreak status, according to MDOE: Two of the three high schools, all three middle schools (King, Lincoln, Lyman Moore), and 6 of the 10 elementary schools (East End, Longfellow, Ocean, Presumpscot, Reiche, Rowe, Talbot).Outbreaks in Southern Maine stretch from York to Winthrop and continue to afflict schools in Brunswick, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Sanford and Scarborough.Winthrop Public Schools Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said the phasing out of contract tracing — and the resulting quarantines — is helping to keep more students in school.Hodgkin said, “The only kids that have to stay out of school are those that are positive. There’s virtually no close contact that have to quarantine in a universal masking school like ours.”One reason elementary schools like Winthrop Grade School are badly hit is due to the relatively low vaccination rate among 5 to 11-year-olds, just 35% statewide, according to the Maine CDC coronavirus vaccine dashboard.“That is definitely a factor. I think a bigger factor is it’s a little more challenging to keep them away from each other, to practice the distancing,” Hodgkin said. “We had some kids that had missed more school, especially at the grade school, more school in the first half of the year than they’d been in school.”More than half of the Winthrop district’s 850 students participate in pool testing, which the district requires to play sports. Parents and educators say they do not want to revert to all-remote learning, though some schools have done so one week at a time this month due to a high absentee rate caused by the surge.Podolsky said, “The harm from the remote learning far outweighs the risks of being in school.”His elder son, Eli, spent most of his junior year alone on his laptop in his family’s dining room.”He does not want to go back to that. I do not want him to go back to that, and it would not be healthy for him to go back to that,” Podolsky said.Portland Public Schools Communications Coordinator Tess Nacelewicz said, “The CDC and our administration will continue to monitor absences and case counts in these schools and evaluate if any further action is warranted.”The Portland district does not offer remote synchronous learning whereby individual students forced to quarantine at home can Zoom into their classes.The 35 schools in outbreak status represent 5% of Maine’s 711 K-12 schools.

Due to the post-holiday season surge in coronavirus cases caused by the omicron variant, the number of Maine schools rated as experiencing a coronavirus “outbreak” has more than quadrupled in the past week, according to data compiled by the Maine Department of Education.

Outbreak status now means 15% or more of a school’s total students and staff have tested positive for the virus, a higher bar than the previous threshold of three confirmed cases during a two-week period.

MDOE listed 8 such schools as of Jan. 13 and 35 as of Jan. 20. (The outbreak schools are highlighted in orange on its web page).

MDOE counted 8,673 cases in schools during the past 30 days.

Portland High School reported the most positive cases — 138 — during the past 30 days, according to MDOE. However, the school district shared data with WMTW showing 153 confirmed positive cases this month.

“I’m not particularly scared or more worried than I usually would be,” said Mike Podolsky, a Portland parent of two fully vaccinated boys enrolled at different outbreak schools, Portland High and Casco Bay High School. “Take the precautions you need to take. Do the things you need to do to protect yourself, you can’t let it ruin your life. You can’t let it run your life.”

No Maine district is currently hit harder by the pandemic than Portland, where 12 of the 16 public schools are in outbreak status, according to MDOE: Two of the three high schools, all three middle schools (King, Lincoln, Lyman Moore), and 6 of the 10 elementary schools (East End, Longfellow, Ocean, Presumpscot, Reiche, Rowe, Talbot).

Outbreaks in Southern Maine stretch from York to Winthrop and continue to afflict schools in Brunswick, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Sanford and Scarborough.

Winthrop Public Schools Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said the phasing out of contract tracing — and the resulting quarantines — is helping to keep more students in school.

Hodgkin said, “The only kids that have to stay out of school are those that are positive. There’s virtually no close contact that have to quarantine in a universal masking school like ours.”

One reason elementary schools like Winthrop Grade School are badly hit is due to the relatively low vaccination rate among 5 to 11-year-olds, just 35% statewide, according to the Maine CDC coronavirus vaccine dashboard.

“That is definitely a factor. I think a bigger factor is it’s a little more challenging to keep them away from each other, to practice the distancing,” Hodgkin said. “We had some kids that had missed more school, especially at the grade school, more school in the first half of the year than they’d been in school.”

More than half of the Winthrop district’s 850 students participate in pool testing, which the district requires to play sports.

Parents and educators say they do not want to revert to all-remote learning, though some schools have done so one week at a time this month due to a high absentee rate caused by the surge.

Podolsky said, “The harm from the remote learning far outweighs the risks of being in school.”

His elder son, Eli, spent most of his junior year alone on his laptop in his family’s dining room.

“He does not want to go back to that. I do not want him to go back to that, and it would not be healthy for him to go back to that,” Podolsky said.

Portland Public Schools Communications Coordinator Tess Nacelewicz said, “The CDC and our administration will continue to monitor absences and case counts in these schools and evaluate if any further action is warranted.”

The Portland district does not offer remote synchronous learning whereby individual students forced to quarantine at home can Zoom into their classes.

The 35 schools in outbreak status represent 5% of Maine’s 711 K-12 schools.

https://www.wmtw.com/article/schools-around-the-state-continue-to-surge-in-coronavirus-cases/38849842