One case of Covid-19 in the first grade at the John M. Marshall Elementary School last week wasn't enough to shut down school in East Hampton, but a second case in second grade, confirmed on Tuesday, led school officials to close the entire district Wedneday. That afternoon, the district informed parents that students who share the classroom with the Covid-positive second grader and that classroom's head teacher will have to quarantine for 14 days.
All students received remote lessons Wednesday, and East Hampton schools were expected to reopen Thursday morning after a deep cleaning.
The Suffolk County Department of Health Services had initially advised the district that it did not need to quarantine students or staff in connection with the second case because the "identified student did not come in close contact with any staff or students" and because the district has precautionary measures in place, including social distancing, the wearing of face coverings, and Plexiglas barriers. The district did say, however, that one person who was in contact with the student outside of school is being quarantined. But by Wednesday afternoon, that information had changed.
"Contact tracing has shown that the kids aren't getting sick from being in school," Wendy Geehreng, a school nurse who is the district's official Covid-19 representative, said by phone Wednesday morning. "They're getting it on the weekends or after school at social gatherings."
The Health Department last Thursday informed East Hampton school officials that there was a suspected Covid case in a first-grade student at John Marshall, and on Saturday announced that the suspected case had been confirmed.
"For John Marshall, because there were also quite a few kids out with non-Covid-related sicknesses, we wanted to take the day to really deep-clean," Ms. Geehreng said Wednesday. "They're the one school [in East Hampton] that comes in five days a week."
"If your child is sick keep them home," Adam Fine, the assistant superintendent, said in Wednesday's voice message, "when in doubt please keep them home. Younger children have sometimes very mild symptoms but can be positive. . . ."
The school district followed the positive-case protocol it outlined in August on its website. According to that document, contact tracers or Covid representatives contact all students and staff members who were within six feet of the infected person for more than 10 minutes; they investigate the case going back 48 hours from the time of the positive test or the day that the infected person became symptomatic. Students or staff members who test positive are required to isolate for at least 10 days, and can return only "as long as he or she is fever free without fever-reducing medications for over 72 hours and symptoms, if any, are resolving."
The two cases at John Marshall, which has an enrollment of more than 500 students, get factored into the county's daily infection rate, which is hovering around 1.2 percent this week. If the county reaches 3 percent or higher, school officials in Suffolk County may opt to switch to distance learning. Following state guidelines, if the infection rate reaches 5 percent, "school facilities will be closed and all learning will become remote," East Hampton's plan says.
Even before the second case was confirmed, the school board had already been developing a plan for surveillance testing, a method that uses random sampling to detect and rein in community spread of the virus. Stony Brook Southampton Hospital has set up a twice-weekly testing site on the East Hampton High School campus.
On Sept. 17 Jackie Lowey, a school board member, posted a question about surveillance testing on Facebook. "We as a district cannot legally mandate testing for students and staff, however, all information indicates that regular surveillance testing can be a critical tool in keeping our school community healthy and open," she wrote. "If we are able to schedule time weekly to sample-test voluntarily, would you as a parent want to have your child tested. This would be done during non-school hours with [a] parent present."
The response to that question was "overwhelmingly positive," Ms. Lowey said by phone Wednesday.
The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, a collective of United States nonprofits whose research often influences public policy, said on Sept. 23 that "disease surveillance, testing, and contact tracing are among the best public health tools available to protect ourselves and our communities during the Covid-19 pandemic."
"We have a very positive relationship with the hospital. We are exploring a variety of options at this point regarding testing," Adam Fine, an assistant superintendent in East Hampton, said by phone Wednesday.
Other school officials in the area eyed East Hampton's Covid-19 cases with caution.
In the Springs School District, Debra Winter, the superintendent, said things are going well.
"Although I regret that we cannot open in person five days a week, the hybrid model allows for social distancing and safety," she said.
"We continue to be cautious," said Jeff Nichols, the Sag Harbor School District superintendent, "but a lot of the effort went into the planning and making sure that we had systems in place that complied with the guidance we received from the state over the summer. . . . It's likely at some point that we will get a positive test result. In that event, we will communicate with the Suffolk County Department of Health Services and our families."
Jack Perna, the Montauk School superintendent, said his district is also doing well.
"We think we are in good shape, but I think we are all in the same boat, so we will be ready if it does [happen], but we are hoping that it doesn't," he said.
The Montauk School District had two cases of Covid-19 among school-age children, according to the School Covid Report Card, an online state database, but neither of those students attends school in person there, the superintendent said.
"They must have been summer residents who put down Montauk as their address," Mr. Perna said. "We don't have anybody here, and I'm knocking on wood right now."
The only other South Fork district to report a positive Covid-19 case in a student was the Southampton School District. However, the Ross School in East Hampton reported to the state that there was a possible case in a female boarding student.
"It turned out that we don't believe she actually had the virus," Andi O'Hearn, director of advancement and operations at the Ross School, said Wednesday. "A first test came back positive, but it was a little unclear. The child was already in quarantine and had been for 14 days at that point. Two subsequent tests came back both negative, and the antibody test came back positive. The conclusion was that sometime in the past she must have had it."
Otherwise, she said, the Ross School is doing well.
"These are all uncharted waters for everybody," Ms. O'Hearn said.
With Reporting by Carissa Katz