DANFORTH, Maine — Students in grade 8-12 at East Grand Community School will spend the next 10 days in a remote learning environment.
The district currently has eight active cases (students and adults) and 10 total cases since the beginning of the school year. There are roughly 132 students in the district in 2021, of which 52 are in grades 8-12.
The district was erring on the side of caution in making the switch to remote learning, Principal Peggy White said Thursday.
“We started the year with masks required while in the building, and our pooled testing started this week,” White said. “Even with these precautions in place, we felt our positive case numbers indicated we needed to take further action.”
Students in pre-kindergarten to seventh grade will remain in school for in-person instruction, she added.
For East Grand, remote learning can prove challenging for some parents, due to the lack of available internet in some areas. To remedy this problem, the district provides families with mobile “hot spots” for students to get online.
“At this time we have a handful of families and staff that will need hotspots to provide internet access,” White said. “While this is a very difficult decision to make concerning students, we think this action will ensure our younger students can continue with in-school instruction as long as possible.”
Determining how many students are “close contacts” of the eight current active cases was not easily determined, White said.
“The close contact question is tricky. We have had community spread, school spread and family spread, so the numbers seemed to point to most of the high school students having some sort of exposure,” she said.
East Grand is just the latest school this week to shift to what is referred to as a “red” designation in terms of COVID-19. Neighboring RSU 29 switched its entire district to remote learning Tuesday, Sept. 14, and will remain in that mode until Monday, Sept. 27.
Caribou Community School also went remote for its elementary students Thursday morning, citing spread among younger students associated with sports activities.
