Managing Coronavirus, Concord Schools Becoming 'Very Challenging'

CONCORD, NH — The city of Concord had more than 200 active positive coronavirus cases Sunday, the most since the start of the pandemic. But while that number is still less than one half of one percent of the city's population, the new cases are causing issues inside SAU 8.

Kathleen Murphy, the interim school superintendent of the Concord School District, said "an uptick in cases" around Concord and the capital region have led to increased issues, "at all levels," of the system. Most of the cases, she said, were from pre-Thanksgiving; but others came later. There is also the issue of family transmission — siblings becoming infected and infecting others as well as teachers catching it from each other and their families, too.

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"Our teachers are part of the community, too," Murphy said. "They are as vulnerable as everyone else."

If a spouse becomes a positive case, she said, the entire family can be put on lockdown; if the teacher was inside the school days before the positive case was found, contact tracing will inform the district of all the people who were connected to that teacher, Murphy said. All of those people may need to be quarantined, too.

"It has been very challenging," she said.

Thankfully, the district only has a handful of cases connected to a school setting — three active cases and 20 recoveries since September, meaning children and educators are safe when inside the schools and when cases outside of the schools can be found quickly and kept out of the classroom.

However, the jump in infections across the city and some close calls, prompted Murphy to move Concord High School and Rundlett Middle School students to remote learning last month through Jan. 18, 2021, Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights Day.

The four cases at Rundlett involved two staffers, a student, and an adult. The staffers were not in school during the first 48-hour "contagious period." One was working remotely and the other was last in school on Nov. 19. The student had not been in school since Nov. 17, Murphy said. The fourth person was a "presumed transmission" between two adults — one, who was previously identified as last in school on Nov. 19.

Recent coronavirus positive cases in the community also prompted Mike Reardon, the high school principal, to send out a reminder to parents not to send their children to school if they have symptoms — and not to try and hide symptoms with over-the-counter medications. In a couple of instances, he said, students who exhibited symptoms and been in school tested positive for coronavirus later.

"I understand that 99% of CHS families understand the importance during the pandemic of being especially diligent regarding monitoring your students' health," he wrote in an email to parents. "I understand, too, that most of our students are now in remote learning. Nonetheless, it bears repeating that any of our students, teachers or administrators who are experiencing any level of possible COVID-19-related symptoms, need to remain at home until the cause of those symptoms is identified."

On Friday, the district announced it would move Abbot-Downing Elementary School students from hybrid to remote learning Monday due to lack of available staff as well as students who are at home and in quarantine.

"Instruction will be delivered using the remote model employed in the fall — four days of synchronous teaching per week," Murphy said.

Positive cases were also reported at the Mill Brook Primary and Christa McAuliffe Elementary schools. But those schools, as well as Beaver Meadow and Broken Ground Elementary schools, were remaining in hybrid mode since they all had enough staff and support to remain in school. Special education students, English language learners, and Concord Regional Technical Center students also remain in class for in-person learning.

Luckily for Concord, even though there are high numbers in the city, "we still don't have any transmission between students and students or students and staff," she said. "But, the numbers … we know they are closing in on us and we're taking it day-by-day."

Interim School Superintendent Kathleen Murphy shared the following graphic with parents Friday explaining the district's contact tracing process. Source: SAU 8.

The problem though is that the district and principals need to give families notice to pivot from one form of learning to the other and that is not always something that can be done with the current contact tracing and notification processes. And, the pandemic, stress, quarantines, and remote and hybrid learning strategies were clearly becoming a detriment to the education of students in New Hampshire's capital city.

"It affects our children and their learning," Murphy said.

When asked whether it was time for the district to request its educators to voluntarily limit their activities to stop the spread of coronavirus outside of school, especially since the state was, technically still in a "safer-at-home" order, Murphy said it was a difficult proposition.

"We cross the line with our ability to" recommend or require what educators do, she said. "Where is the line that we draw as an employer? Where is the line that we can draw as a district to indicate to their employees not to be out in the public?"

Murphy said the protection and safety of educators and students were "so essential" to ensuring they are educated properly because, "it is what we do every day." But that job is becoming more difficult as cases rise in the state.

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