Students and faculty at Schreiber High School will work remotely for the remainder of this week, Port Washington district Superintendent Michael Hynes said.
Hynes made the announcement at the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, just hours after a phone call went out to the school community with the news.
“Some of you may have just received a phone call from me regarding Schreiber going remote for the remainder of this week,” Hynes said at the meeting, conducted via Zoom. “Unfortunately, we have had some positive cases at Schreiber, and we have to conduct contact tracing.”
While an exact number of those who tested positive was not given, a message issued by Hynes the day before the meeting said that four Schreiber students and one staff member had tested positive. The New York State Health Department’s COVID-19 report card listed 81 students and 16 staff and faculty members as having tested positive throughout the school year at Schreiber.
“There’s good news and bad news associated with this,” Hynes said. “The good news is that it was the first day of our on-site testing, [provided by] Advanced Cardiovascular Diagnostics. We had two different locations, one here right at Schreiber and the other station at Sousa [Elementary School]. We have our staff members who are being tested, we also have our high-risk sports student athletes who are tested as well. But because of what happened today, you know, we just have to be really, really safe. We’re just going fully remote for the remainder of this week.”
Hynes noted that the notification about the closure went out after the school day ended on Tuesday, later than he was anticipating.
“Sometimes when we receive information, we receive it you know, not always before 5 o’clock, so we had to make this call,” Hynes said. “So I appreciate, as always, your patience. Your understanding as a school community is very much appreciated.”
