193 Schools in Maine in "Outbreak Status"; 2 in Presque Isle Area

Nearly 200 Schools in Maine in "Outbreak Status"

As the first full week of school after Thanksgiving concludes there are 193 schools in the state considered to be in "outbreak status”, and we know two of them are in the MSAD #1 district. On Friday, the school released its weekly Covid-19 case numbers in memo published on their Facebook page.

Transmission in school?

Since Monday the school district in Presque Isle had 30 new identified positive Covid-19 cases spread across the five schools. The Maine CDC informed district officials on Friday that the Presque Isle Middle School and the Mapleton Elementary School were both in official “outbreak status.” District Superintendent Ben Greenlaw also said that they have seen a few examples in the past week of the virus being transmitted within some of the schools.

The Local Breakdown

Presque Isle High School ended the week with 10 newly identified cases, 6 cases associated with the Mapleton Elementary and another 6 at Pine Street Elementary. There are 4 new cases at Zippel Elementary and 3 new cases at the Presque Isle Middle School. As of Friday, there were 57 close contacts who are now in a ten-day quarantine. View the MSAD #1 Dashboard here.

This seems like significant news to me as a parent...

The Depart of Education notified schools across the state earlier this week that there are new guidelines in marking attendance for schools. Students who are in quarantine are still expected to be accounted for in some way, to avoid truancy. New codes for remote attendance codes: RP = Remote Present, REX = Remote Excused, RUEX = Remote Unexcused. Some districts, like RSU 29 in Houlton, have been hiring additional staff to assist with any remote education.

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