A Keys school employee has tested positive for coronavirus, and a building is shut down
A Florida Keys school building was closed this week for deep-cleaning after an employee working there tested positive for the novel coronavirus, school officials confirmed Wednesday.
Sugarloaf School, 255 Crane Blvd. on Sugarloaf Key, has been closed to students and parents since March 13 due to the pandemic. Instruction has continued online.
But several employees have been on campus to clean and distribute food.
“The employee who tested positive was not near any food distribution at any time,” said Monroe County School District administrator Theresa Axford.
The employee self-reported to the school’s assistant principal, Kelley Lanier, on Sunday and all who were in contact with the employee were notified, Axford said.
“Employees wore N95 masks and gloves at all times while in the building,” Axford said.
The district is having an outside agency clean the building, a process that takes several days, Axford said.
On Friday, the school had reopened “on a limited basis,” said Monroe School Superintendent Mark Porter, who expected some employees to return Monday if they’ve been cleared by a COVID-19 test.
“So far, all test results are negative,” Porter said.
Those still under the 14-day quarantine who have not yet received a confirmed negative test will remain on quarantine, he said.
The Keys on Friday afternoon had 95 known cases of COVID-19, including one on Sugarloaf, which was reported weeks ago, and three deaths.
School officials wouldn’t identify the employee by name, job title or hometown.
“There weren’t that many people there and there are even fewer in each employee group,” said Porter.
Porter said the employee was part of a group cleaning out lockers and organizing the items by student.
“The employee was participating in part of a locker cleanup,” Porter said. “They were performing duties that weren’t a normal part of their work. They were stepping up.”
Porter said the district did all the contact tracing and Principal Harry Russell identified all the people the employee had contact with. All of them are in a 14-day quarantine.
“It was not a food service worker and the person had no contact with the food service areas,” Porter said. “With an overabundance of caution, all personnel have been quarantined with no signs or symptoms reported at this time.”
Sugarloaf School, which goes from kindergarten through eighth grade, has an enrollment of 633 students, according to district’s records.
The district did not publicly announce the infected employee or the building’s closure for cleaning.
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 3:36 PM.
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