MAST to reopen Tuesday, a day after school closed when 2 students tested COVID positive
Two MAST Academy students tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, prompting Miami-Dade County Public Schools to cancel in-person classes at the school Monday.
But the school will reopen Tuesday, Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Monday afternoon.
“Tuesday, MAST Academy will be open with all of the students who elected for the schoolhouse model with the exception of those who have been contacted by school administration due to their direct interaction with those individuals,” Carvalho said.
Those students who have had direct contact with their COVID-19 positive classmates were asked to stay home until they’re cleared by the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, which could mean two weeks of quarantine, the standard health department protocol.
As of Monday evening, it was unclear whether teachers would be teaching those students remotely during the quarantine.
MAST students, parents and employees were told Sunday about the two students with COVID-19, said MDCPS Chief Communications Officer Daisy Gonzalez-Diego. The marine magnet school on the Rickenbacker Causeway just began in-person classes Wednesday after starting the school year online amid COVID-19 concerns.
MAST, which is a 6-12 school that attracts students from across the county, had about 80 percent of its 1,502 students — about 1,200 — return to classes when its classroom doors opened last week, one of the higher return rates among the county’s public schools.
Before adding the MAST students and two students from elsewhere that Carvalho said Monday are presumptive positives, Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ COVID-19 dashboard reported nine cases of the novel coronavirus in its schools, eight students and one employee. Five students were new to the dashboard Monday.
The new cases were at Coral Park Elementary, 1225 SW 97th Ave., Westchester area (two there); Flagami Elementary, 920 SW 76th Ave., West Miami-Dade; North Dade Center for Modern Languages, 1840 NW 157th St., Miami Gardens; and Royal Green Elementary, 13047 SW 47th St., West Miami-Dade.
The MAST cases had not shown up on the dashboard as of Monday evening.
The other schools with confirmed cases of one positive student are William H. Lehman Elementary in Kendall, Zora Neale Hurston Elementary in West Miami-Dade, and Charles D. Wyche Jr. Elementary in Miami Gardens, according to the district’s dashboard. A staffer at Poinciana Park Elementary in Liberty City has also tested positive, the district said.
By Friday, about 142,000 Miami-Dade public school students had returned to school, as the district phased in the reopening of classrooms to students in a staggered, three-day start last week. The students who returned represented about 55 percent of the district’s 255,000 students; the remaining have opted to continue learning remotely.
Broward County public schools opened on Friday, also in a staggered start continuing through this week. A first-grader at Pembroke Pines Charter Elementary School tested positive as did two employees, one at Miramar High and another at Park Trails Elementary in Parkland, the Sun Sentinel reported.
Gonzalez-Diego, the Miami-Dade schools spokeswoman, said MAST was the only school closed Monday.
“The big difference between the cases we have dealt with thus far and these last two,” Carvalho said, “had to do with when the communication was brought to the attention of school leadership.
“Considering the time of the day when we completed the vetting process, it would be impossible to make contact with every one of the students’ families who had direct contact with these two students,” he continued.
“We were in a position for opting for the safest route, which was shut down the school for one day; continue the schooling process online; sanitize the school Sunday and (Monday); bring the students back Tuesday.”
The superintendent also clarified that the “direct contact” he referred to was at school or school events.
But one MAST teacher told the Herald the cases may be connected to a party on Key Biscayne, where there was little social distancing or masks. Many MAST students live on Key Biscayne, as the school is off the Rickenbacker Causeway, the main roadway into the village.
On Friday, the United Teachers of Dade, posted a photo on Twitter that it said showed students at MAST walking down a crowded hallway. The union said the photo showed the school’s plan to reopen was flawed and done in haste.
“It was rushed. No plan would have been perfect, but this had a lot of room for improvement if they could have taken a bit more time,” the post stated.
Miami-Dade Schools opened Monday, Oct. 5, nine days ahead of Oct. 14, the date the school board voted unanimously last month to reopen. The board’s plan called for a soft school opening, with a full reopening on Oct. 21, 12 days later than Friday’s full reopening.
The board changed its dates after State Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran pressured Miami-Dade to open earlier.
A MAST parent responded to the union’s post, saying her child told her that the situation inside the school last week left students at risk.
“My daughter is a student there and tells me every day about the lack of social distancing in the hallways,” Julissa Barrios posted on Twitter. “And, students not following the signs in the hallway.”
A father of two MAST students, who asked not to be named, said Monday night he and his wife have decided to take their children out of in-person learning until they can be sure safety conditions at the school have improved.
“We’re filling out the forms now to have them go back to virtual,” he said. “We don’t feel that it’s safe enough yet.”
Michele Drucker, parent of MAST ninth-grader Max Drucker, said she was not surprised that infected students were at school but was concerned that Max, who was in an engineering class with one of the students who tested positive, will now be required to miss two weeks of school in order to quarantine at home. The school ordered all students who were in classes with either of the two infected students to stay home.
“We’ve been told he can’t come back to school until further notice but the school can’t provide online learning access while he’s absent,” Drucker said. “A lot of parents are upset. So you don’t have a contingency learning plan to accommodate students who are quarantined? You didn’t see this coming? That’s like a two-week suspension for these kids.”
Drucker took Max, who has no symptoms, for a COVID-19 test at a CVS drugstore on Monday although MAST didn’t request one. (The school told parents to consult the Florida Department of Health for more information.) She said Max wore a mask at school and was never in close contact with the two infected students.
“I still think the reopening of schools will turn into a super spreader event,” Drucker said. “We took a calculated risk sending Max back because he wanted to go back, he did not want his class schedule changed and we are not an at-risk family.”
Miami Herald staff writer Linda Robertson contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 7:54 AM.
