Positive COVID-19 case at Augusta's St. Michael School triggers remote learning - Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

Officials at St. Michael School in Augusta, a private Catholic school seen here on Thursday, say a person associated with the school has tested positive for COVID-19. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal Buy this Photo

AUGUSTA — A person associated with St. Michael School has tested positive for COVID-19, school officials said Thursday.

As a result of the positive case, the private Catholic school switched to remote learning on Tuesday, and will continue to have classes remotely until Thursday, Oct. 15. Previously, St. Michael’s had in-person classes for grades K through 8th.

Principal Kevin Cullen alerted the Catholic school community through a letter on Tuesday afternoon after he found out through both the individual and the Maine Center for Disease Control about the news of the positive case.

As of Thursday morning, Cullen said that the families that were identified as close contact with the individual had not heard from the CDC, but said that it can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours to receive a phone call.

However, those within close contact should have received a call from Cullen.

“I personally called every person that was a close contact and I made over 60 phone calls” on Tuesday, he said. “I contacted everyone to say, ‘This is what you should be expecting from the CDC,’ and people were so nice and kind.”

Cullen declined to comment on whether the individual is a student or a staff member but added that the individual has been quarantining since Oct. 1.

He said that the 180 students have done a “good job of social distancing and mask-wearing,” and that everyone at the school has “done the best that we can.”

The choice to switch to remote learning for the next week was made after consulting with the CDC, superintendent and pastor of the school and the decision to return to in-person classes on Oct. 15 was through recommendations of the CDC.

“If there are any additional cases of COVID-19 on our campus moving forward, you will be notified,” the letter from Cullen stated. “Transparency, safety and trust will remain our top priorities.”

Students at the school will use devices that were already handed out to students, Cullen said and will have four hours of remote class time a day. Each day will still start with a prayer and with the Pledge of Allegiance.

The positive COVID-19 test is the fourth case to appear in a Kennebec County school in the past week, and Kennebec County is still in the “green” on the Maine Department of Education’s color scale for coronavirus safety. The latest district to turn “yellow” is Oxford County.

Most recently, yesterday, Gilbert Elementary School in Augusta reported a positive COVID-19 case; however, no students or other staff members were reported to be within close contact. Last week, Regional School District 38 and RSU 12 each reported a case.

“It would shock me if there was a school in Maine that doesn’t have a case,” Cullen said. “You could get it [COVID-19] anywhere, in a store, and there is so much that we don’t know, and you can only do so much. Our students have adapted so well, though.”

According to the Maine CDC’s coronavirus data, the rate at which children under the age of 20 are contacting COVID-19 has risen by almost 3% from August 1 to Oct. 7.

On Aug. 1, the rate of COVID-19 in children under the age of 20 was 9.10%, and the rate on Oct. 7 was 12.06%.

Nick Adams, a data analyst that runs MaineCovid, said that the increase in cases among that age group could be twofold.

“We cannot conclude with the public data is causation,” he said. “For example, are these new cases simply because more children and teens are getting tested (and cases already in the population are being discovered) or did the start of school start an outbreak? Also, are the cases concentrated in a county, city, school district, school, etc. vs spread across the state? The public data just can’t answer these questions.”

Cullen is advising students at St. Michael School to watch their symptoms.

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