COVID Closes Midland Elementary
Late Monday night the Rye schools announced Midland School will be closed Tuesday due to a COVID-19 case in the school. The closing is due to the need to conduct contact tracing on Tuesday, after which a determination will be made if the school will go remote or in-person on Wednesday.
The community note follows:
“From: Eric Byrne
Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2020
Subject: A Message from the Superintendent
To: Rye City School District Recipients
October 12, 2020
Dear Midland Families, Faculty and Staff,
The District was informed this evening that an individual at Midland School has tested positive for COVID-19. The individual is currently in isolation and was last at the school on Friday, October 9. Due to federal health privacy laws, additional information about the individual cannot be released. Due to the need for contact tracing, Midland School will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday, October 13. Due to the late notification of this situation, we are unable to pivot to fully remote instruction for tomorrow. We will make a determination tomorrow if school will be in-person or fully remote on Wednesday, October 14.
We are working closely with the Westchester County Department of Health and, as always, the safety of our students and staff is our highest priority. The Department of Health is currently in the process of contact tracing for this case using contact information provided by the District. The District has also contacted the families of students and faculty and staff who we suspect will need to quarantine. If you do not receive a call from a Contact Tracer or call or an email from the District, this means that based on the guidance received from the Department of Health, your student or you as a faculty or staff member did not meet their criteria.
For more information about the WCDOH protocols for handling COVID-19 issues, please see their FAQ (HERE) and the recent NYSDOH guidance for COVID-19 decision making (COVID-19 Toolkit).
Please be assured that we will continue to do everything in our power to keep the Rye community safe.
Sincerely,
Eric Byrne, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools”