RANDOLPH — Three Randolph-area schools moved to fully remote instruction this week after a second person in the schools tested positive for COVID-19.
That person was a close contact of the first person to test positive, which school officials announced last week, according to updates Orange Southwest School District Superintendent Layne Millington posted to Facebook over the weekend.
As a result of quarantines related to the two positive cases, Randolph Union High School, Randolph Technical Career Center and Braintree (Vt.) Elementary School moved to fully remote instruction through at least Wednesday of this week.
The schools previously were operating on a hybrid model with some in-person classes.
“This will continue until the staff in quarantine are able to return to work — our thoughts are with all who have been impacted by this,” Millington wrote. “It is possible that these schools could be back in session on Thursday; we will update the community Wednesday night on where things stand.”
Meals for the three affected schools are slated to be available via curbside pickup at the high school from 10 a.m. to noon through Thursday. Friday food service is slated to operate as normal.
The district’s other two schools — Randolph Elementary and Brookfield (Vt.) Elementary — are operating as normal this week and the district’s five buildings remain open to teachers, Millington said. Athletics are slated to proceed under the direction of the athletic director.
The first case identified in Randolph schools appeared to have been linked to a hockey outbreak in Central Vermont, Millington said in a message last week. That outbreak, which also involved a staff member at Oxbow High School, includes at least 43 cases, two colleges, seven schools, seven workplaces and two hospitals, as well as at least 240 close contacts, the Vermont Department of Health said last week.
In the last two weeks, there have been 14 new cases in Windsor County and seven in Orange County, according to the Vermont Department of Health. Vermont has had a total of 2,083 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
On the New Hampshire side of the Upper Valley, there were 26 active cases in Grafton County, including five in Lyme and seven in Hanover, and 11 in Sullivan County, out of a total of 1,032 active cases in the state, as of Sunday. There have been a total of 10,328 in the state since the beginning of the pandemic.
A staff member at FitKids Childcare at the River Valley Club has tested positive for COVID-19.
The case appears to be isolated and from a source outside the private center, which is located in the Centerra business park in Lebanon, FitKids owner Elizabeth Asch wrote in a Saturday email to the FitKids community.
The children in the single affected classroom are required to quarantine for 14 days, Asch wrote. The affected families were alerted in a separate email, she said. Other members of their households do not need to quarantine, including siblings enrolled at FitKids.
In a separate COVID-19 precaution, Asch said the River Valley Club is putting a three-week hold on sales of daily guest passes, week-long passes and other short-term passes from Nov. 21 through Dec. 10. That suspension is aimed at reducing the risk of spreading COVID-19 from visitors and returning college students, she said.