Meridian School District announces closure after staff member exposed to coronavirus
The Meridian School District announced it will close schools Tuesday and Wednesday, March 10-11, after a middle school staff member was exposed to an individual outside Whatcom County that tested positive for new coronavirus.
Superintendent Dr. James Everett announced the closure in an online statement posted Monday evening.
Everett’s statement said the exposure occurred Feb. 29 and the staff member has cold symptoms, is staying home and has connected with their primary care provider. The staff member was at school all last week and on Monday and they have been in contact with students and other staff, Everett reported.
“Our concern is that we had a staff member at school for six days that had been in contact with someone that had been confirmed to have COVID-19,” Everett told The Bellingham Herald Tuesday. “There is potential they interacted with other staff and students. Our feeling is that we wanted to act in the best interest of our staff and students, so we made the decision we did.”
Out of respect for the staff member’s privacy and because staff members “wear many hats” in small districts, such as Meridian, and have a propensity to interact with many students and staff members in different buildings, Everett declined to say what role the staff member held in the district.
“All our students ride the same buses. Student and staff safety is our primary concern and it is this interconnectedness that has driven the decision to close the district for two days out of precaution,” Everett wrote in his statement.
Coronavirus is spread through contact between people within six feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s possible to catch the disease COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure.
More than 113,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 3,990 deaths as of Monday afternoon, March 9, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 600 confirmed cases with at least 22 deaths.
Everett wrote that he learned of the exposure Tuesday, and the district’s board and executive team worked with the Whatcom County Health Department before making the decision to close Meridian schools as a precaution.
The district intends to reopen schools on Thursday, March 12, Everett told The Herald.
Before then, Everett said the district will use the time to thoroughly re-clean classrooms and high-touch surfaces.
“We’ve been doing that,” he told The Herald. “We have cleaning supplies for all our buses and musical instruments. We’re trying to ensure the best we can that things are clean and then start again on Thursday.”
Everett said the district also will continue to gather information and assess what is best for the district, though its message to students, parents and staff about the importance of focusing on personal hygiene hasn’t changed.
“It’s a constantly changing situation, and information is sometimes founded and sometimes not,” Everett told The Herald. “We’re checking the status and constantly trying to gauge what is best for our students and staff.”
Lummi Nation School announced Sunday that it also will be closed Tuesday to train staff on COVID-19 and cleaning.
No other Whatcom County school districts reported closings on their district websites or social media on Tuesday.
The Whatcom County Health Department in a Facebook post says it is still not recommending school closures.
“Closing schools when there has not been a confirmed case in a student or staff member is not currently recommended by the Whatcom County Health Department,” the post read. “Our recommendations for school closures have not changed at this time.”
The post went on to read that the health department understands districts “act out of extra special caution when they are protecting children.”
“For most cases, COVID-19 is a mild illness that does not require hospital care,” the county health department said in a release on Meridian’s closure. “We cannot eliminate COVID-19, but we can limit its spread by washing hands with soap and water frequently, avoiding touching our face (mouth, nose, eyes), staying home when sick until the illness is resolved, covering coughs and sneezes with tissue and washing hands after, and staying away from others who are ill.”
This story was originally published March 10, 2020 at 6:32 AM.
