East Hampton Schools Maintaining 10-Day Quarantine After A Positive Test -- For Now

East Hampton Superintendent of Schools Adam Fine announced on Tuesday, January 18, during a Board of Education meeting, that the district would continue to maintain a 10-day quarantine for those infected with or who come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 through the end of the month.

“Then, at that point, we’ll reassess and, hopefully, reduce that to the five days,” said Fine, who added that the decision was made after consulting with school nurses and the district’s chief medical officer. “If this plateau becomes a deep gully, that would be great.”

On Christmas Eve, the State Department of Health issued an advisory message siding with a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation that essential workers who test positive could return to work following five days of isolation if symptoms resolve, or if an infected person is asymptomatic. Besides a fever, the CDC states it is most concerned with a runny nose or disruptive cough. After day five, well-fitting masks like a KN-95 or better must be worn for an additional five days.

On December 27, the CDC decided to change its decision on quarantining, nationally, to include everyone, not just essential workers. Eventually, the state and county realigned its guidance with the CDC. Those who are vaccinated and boosted, or those ineligible for a booster, do not need to quarantine, but should take a test on day five, if possible, and must wear a mask. Districts can maintain the longer-length isolation period — they just can’t shorten it to fewer than the five days.

But following the holiday break, the district saw a spike in coronavirus cases, which forced officials to close the high school to in-person learning for four days. The high school saw 108 new positive cases from January 3 through January 9, with 82 students, 18 teachers and eight staff members. John M. Marshall Elementary School was also almost on the verge of a shutdown, reporting 69 positive cases over the same seven-day period.

“We were in the middle of it — our numbers were so skewed, even compared to larger high schools,” the superintendent said. “I don’t know why it happened here, but one of my best guesses is that we have a very honest community that tests their kids. A lot of people were self-testing.”

The district handed out tests to 700 students the first day they became available. Fine said while administrators braced themselves to see an even larger increase in positive cases following at-home test distribution, it didn’t.

“Our numbers had already risen exponentially, and, Tim and I thought, ‘Oh no, here it comes,’” Fine said, “but we did not see an intense spike, which was nice.”

As of January 14, the high school reported just 10 new cases — eight of which were students — bringing the total over the last seven days to 38, 33 of whom were students. The middle school announced 14 positives over the same timespan — including 12 students — and the elementary school 12 — in nine students, one teacher and two other staff members.

More tests were handed out to students on Wednesday, and the district is expected to receive another shipment of nearly 1,000 later this week.

“It seems, at this point,” the superintendent said, “anyone who needs extra tests will be able to get them in the nurse’s office of each school.”

Assistant Superintendent Timothy Fromm said nurses are also sending them home with sick students.

“It’s working out as well as can be, I think,” he said.

Kristen Morgan, whose son attends East Hampton Middle School, asked if there was a way to require students and staff to take at-home tests following breaks — though they were not available to districts before kids went back to school this time around — in an effort to keep numbers down.

While districts cannot mandate tests be taken, Fine said one of the things the district is able to do is distribute them before breaks and encourage parents to test their children before sending them back to school.