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District 75 School In Elmhurst First To Shut Down For Two Weeks Because Of Two COVID-19 Cases
By
Sophia Chang
Published Oct 1, 2020
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JFK Jr. School / Twitter
By
Sophia Chang
Published Oct 1, 2020
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A high school in Queens has been closed for the next two weeks after two separate cases of COVID-19 were reported, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.
The John F. Kennedy Jr. School in Elmhurst, just behind Queens Center Mall, was shut on September 29th and will reopen October 14th, as per the Department of Education’s protocols for containing COVID-19 cases in school communities.
“As you know, our school building was closed for an initial 24 hours because two or more members of our school community tested positive for COVID-19. Today we are writing to update you that the NYC Test + Trace Corps and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have determined that at this time the main site building must remain closed for 14 days,” wrote the school’s principal Henry Renelus Sr. in a letter dated September 30th.
The school serves District 75 students with special needs, de Blasio said, with 262 students enrolled in their blended learning program and 88 staff members. Students will switch to remote learning while the building is closed.
The school had only been open for nine days when it was first shut on September 29th — District 75 schools, along with 3K and Pre-K schools, started in-person learning on September 21st. The rest of the school system started in-person learning this week, including middle and high schoolers Thursday.
De Blasio said the cases at John F. Kennedy Jr. School were identified by the new “Situation Room” — the interagency project to identify COVID-19 reports in school communities. As of Thursday, the John F. Kennedy Jr. School was the only one of the city’s 1,600 public and 260 charter schools to close for two weeks, de Blasio said.
“That's the only one the entire time that has experienced that. And what's going to happen, I think, in a case like this is what we've been telling people along those two weeks, kids, of course, will get instruction remotely, then the school will be a backup to everyone who was quarantine will come right back,” he said. “So we're going to continue to use that approach. It's very precise. And the Situation Room is really proven to be a great methodology and tremendously helpful.”
Meanwhile, there have been about 160 school reports of positive COVID-19 tests, though no other school has had to close for more than 24 hours, meaning these reports have been isolated incidents at each school building.
“We have seen some cases where a classroom had to be quarantined, a pod had to be taken out for two weeks, but relatively few,” de Blasio said Thursday.
The DOE has published a new map with some reported cases that will be updated daily, though the map is limited to current "active confirmed" cases.
The city’s seven-day average positivity rate was 1.52% Thursday, up from 1.47% on the prior day. De Blasio has said that if the citywide positivity rate is 3%, all schools will be shut down and students will learn remotely.
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COVID-19
coronavirus
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Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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