SPRINGFIELD — Pope Francis Preparatory School has seen 11 cases of COVID-19 since students returned to in-person learning on Jan. 6 after the holiday break.
“We do believe the increase in cases is a direct result of gatherings over the holidays,” said Paul Harrington, head of the private parochial high school in Springfield. “Of the cases identified since our return to school, seven of the cases came in the first week back and four in the second week.”
The school reopened for in-person learning on Aug. 25, but had to close again for two weeks after a student tested positive for the coronavirus less than a month later.
“We have been offering in-person learning for about 20 weeks now,” Harrington said.
In those 20 weeks the school has had a total of 28 students test positive for COVID-19, including 17 from August until December and 11 since Jan. 6. There are currently four students in quarantine with COVID-19; two of them are siblings.
“There have been two staff cases between August and now, both of whom contracted the virus from immediate family members,” Harrington said.
State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recommendations, revised in December 2020, are for a student with symptoms to quarantine and test on day five after exposure. If the test is negative they can return to school on day eight if they are symptom free. The state says another option is to have students quarantine for 10 days with no test and return to school on day 11 if symptom-free. The safest option is quarantining for 14 days.
“For the safety of all in the school community, the school policy is stricter and requires a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on the fifth day after exposure and then they can return to school on day 11 if they are symptom free,” Harrington said. “Any time a student returns to school for any COVID related reason, they must complete the school’s reentry form, supply test results and documentation regarding their absence, and be cleared for return by the school nurse.”
Harrington said all students and families signed a COVID Code of Conduct the first week of January before returning from the recent break. However, administrators believe some students did not adhere to the agreement, causing a spike in positive cases.
The positive cases in the fall and now again in the winter have led to quarantining of members of several sports teams on campus.
“Sports teams that have had a positive case among a teammate have had to quarantine immediately and follow the school test and quarantine protocol,” Harrington said. “Since August this has affected four teams, boys soccer in the fall, boys hockey, girls hockey and girls basketball. Three have fulfilled their quarantine and have returned to school. One team will return on Monday.”
There are 370 students enrolled in the school, with 10% choosing to remain remote learners.
“Including students and staff there are a total of about 385 people on campus each day. This has been the case since August,” Harrington said.
The school has kept families informed of the cases since the first incident in the fall, Harrington said.
“Dating back to July, the school has been completely transparent with students, families, and faculty and staff regarding COVID expectation, protocols, communications, and cases,” Harrington said. “The strict protocols in place since opening in August have proven it is safe to offer in-person learning.”
“The recent uptick in cases seen at school mirror those in our greater community and comes as no surprise,” he said. “The transparency of our school to home and home to school communication has been a key ingredient to our success. To date, there is no evidence that transmission has occurred through school activity. All safety protocols remain in place from cleaning to mask wearing to social distancing to limited capacities in all spaces.”
Harrington said while there are no immediate plans to return to remote learning, the administration is monitoring the situation closely and is not opposed to reverting to a hybrid or remote learning system if necessary.
“A transition of status to hybrid or remote is under consideration at all times as we continue to monitor and maintain our ability to mitigate spread on campus, and to ensure we have a healthy staff, and stay in tune with local community numbers - in particular hospitalization rates,” he said.
“Our students and faculty and staff are prepared to make a transition at any time if and when it’s necessary. Health and safety comes first and while we have been blessed by the many advantages of in-person learning, we are very confident that a transition to hybrid or remote learning would remain an excellent learning experience at Pope, as was evidenced last spring.”
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