Bayview Elementary School Employee Contracts Coronavirus

WEST ISLIP, NY — An employee at a West Islip elementary school tested positive for coronavirus, the school district announced Wednesday. The person worked at Bayview Elementary School on Snedecor Avenue. School officials did not say if it was a teacher or another staff member.

It marked the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Islip and increased the total in Suffolk County to seven.

In response, Bayview Elementary School was closed Thursday. In a letter to the community, Superintendent Bernadette Burns said that in following the advice of New York State Department of Health and the New York State Education Department, the school will be shut down for 24 hours while the Suffolk County Department of Health investigates. In addition, all activities across the West Islip school district were canceled Thursday.

During the closure, all Islip school buildings will be disinfected. The school hired a professional cleaning service to clean Bayview. The district custodial staff will disinfect the rest of the school buildings.

Any additional closures will be announced after consulting with the local Department of Health Services. Burns stated Wednesday that she "anticipates" the investigation and cleaning will be done in time for the school to reopen Friday.

Local assemblyman Mike LiPetri said there's "no need to panic."

"Any time we hear of a new virus or are faced with something unknown it’s scary and normal to initially panic," LiPetri said. "Despite this, we must remain realistic and the current fact is that the vast majority of cases do not require hospitalization with many patients being treated from their own homes. My advice for residents is to remain calm and stay informed. We will move past this."