Coral Park Elementary to reopen after students, employee test positive for COVID-19
An employee and three students at Coral Park Elementary in Westchester tested positive for COVID-19, prompting the school to shut down and switch to online learning Wednesday, school officials said.
The school will reopen Thursday, school officials said Wednesday evening, both in a statement to the Herald and on Instagram.
On Monday morning, Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ COVID-19 Dashboard listed two confirmed student cases at Coral Park, 1225 SW 97th Ave. By Wednesday afternoon, the dashboard listed a school employee, in addition to the two students. NBC6 reported the employee is a teacher, but the district would not comment.
By Wednesday evening, the dashboard did not include the third positive COVID student.
COVID-19 investigation began Tuesday at Coral Park
The district said the school began its investigation after it was notified on Tuesday night that an employee and student had tested positive. Officials learned the employee had been in several different areas of the school.
“In an abundance of caution and after consultation with the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade, Coral Park Elementary School will pivot to online instruction today after an employee and a student reportedly tested positive for COVID-19,” Miami-Dade Public Schools spokeswoman Daisy Gonzalez-Diego said in a statement Wednesday.
“The transition ensured that those who came in close contact with the individuals were notified and that all buildings in the school were thoroughly sanitized. As always, our actions will be guided by the health and well-being of our students and employees.”
The district bases it decision on whether to close down a school on a few main factors, said district spokeswoman Jaquelyn Calzadilla: whether the infected person was contained to a small area or moved throughout the school; how many people had they come into contact with; and whether the school could be sanitized before students and teachers arrived again.
The school announced the closure early Wednesday on Instagram.
Once the health department confirms the third student’s positive test, the dashboard will update to reflect three student COVID cases at Coral Park, the district said.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools reopened for in-person learning last week after months of online learning during the novel coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, MAST Academy, a 6-12 school on the Rickenbacker Causeway with 1,500 students, switched to online learning after two students tested positive for COVID-19. The magnet school reopened Tuesday.
As of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, the Miami-Dade Schools dashboard listed 14 students and two employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the school district. The first confirmed cases were reported last week just days after students returned to the classroom.
New cases at Kendale Lakes Elemnetary, Arvida Middle
According to district spokeswoman Calzadilla, the new numbers reflect one of the three Coral Park cases, two at Kendale Lakes Elementary School and one at Arvida Middle School.
More than 45 Broward County public schools staff members and one student have also tested positive for the novel coronavirus, as of Monday. The numbers came out four days after Broward public schools opened their doors to students for in-person learning. Broward will not update its numbers until Friday.
Calzadilla said children who must quarantine because the district has determined they have come into contact with a positive person will take classes online while they are away from class.
“Provisions are being made to ensure that those students who were asked to quarantine receive instruction online during that time,” she said.
Some parents have told the Herald they are keeping their children home until they are convinced schools are safe.
Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said earlier this week that the district is working with MAST parents who want to switch their children back to at-home learning, but he cautioned that the change would take time.
“This requires massive schedule changes for those students impacted because the teachers are returning,” he said. “We will try to be as flexible, as accommodating as we’ve been with students at other schools.”
For those asked to quarantine, the situation is yet another development they must adjust to in the COVID-19 era.
MAST Academy parents are angry
Max Strongman, a MAST senior, and his sister Savannah, a MAST ninth-grader, are both quarantining at home after Max was informed by his counselor late Monday night that he had been exposed to one of the infected students who had been in a math classroom just before Max entered it for the next period. Savannah was told to stay home because of her exposure to her sibling, their mother said.
All their classes are being taught over Zoom, so they will not miss out while they do remote learning from home in South Miami. About half of MAST’s teachers are conducting Zoom classes from their homes and hadn’t returned to their classrooms when school reopened last week, they said.
“A lot of kids are being told to quarantine even though they were not directly exposed to the two infected students because MAST went to great lengths to be extra cautious,” said Susan Linning, parent of Max and Savannah, who both intend to return to school when they are cleared to do so.
“What’s frustrating for everyone at MAST is that the parents sent these two kids to school on Friday knowing they’d been exposed, knowing they were awaiting a test result. The onus is on parents to do the right thing. If parents act responsibly, we’d be on solid footing.”
MAST family group chats are filled with angry finger-pointing at the school and county administration, which Linning thinks is misplaced.
“The families are furious in the group chats. Almost everyone is irate, saying the reopening of public schools was poorly planned and horribly organized and we’re all going to get infected,” she said.
“But some of us are totally sympathetic to the administrators and teachers who are going above and beyond under a lot of pressure. I feel terribly for those who are working triple time on behalf of their students and their schools. It’s unfair to blame them. I don’t know how you roll this out successfully when you’re talking about thousands and thousands of people in a huge school district.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 7:40 AM.
