It is no surprise that we are starting to see cases pop up in the Portsmouth school district as well.”

Superintendent Thomas Kenworthy

PORTSMOUTH — There have been four confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Portsmouth school system, Superintendent Thomas Kenworthy told the School Committee Tuesday night.

They are the first confirmed cases since the district started the school year last month with a hybrid of in-person and distance learning.

Given what’s been happening both at the state and national level, Mr. Kenworthy said, “It is no surprise that we are starting to see cases pop up in the Portsmouth school district as well. We have to make sure we are as prepared as possible, and it has been a busy week in this regard.”

According to the superintendent, two students involved in distance learning at Melville Elementary School, along with a staff member at the school, tested positive for COVID. Another student, who was doing in-person learning at the high school, tested positive as well. All four tests have since been confirmed by the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH).

Based on guidance from RIDOH, any student or staff member who is confirmed positive for the virus is instructed to isolate at home, according to the district’s online COVID dashboard, where confirmed cases are reported. The district notifies families and staff when there is a positive case and work with RIDOH on contact tracing. 

Anyone who is a “close contact” — someone who has spent at least 15 minutes cumulative within six feet of a person with a confirmed diagnosis during their infectious period — will be notified they need to quarantine to avoid potential spread, according to district guidelines.

Students who are participating full-time in distance learning from home are not included on the dashboard unless they are physically participating in an activity at the school. The numbers include any student or staff who has tested positive regardless of whether their exposure was at one of the schools. For privacy concerns, student and staff numbers are combined.

Timeline of events

Mr. Kenworthy ran through the timeline of how the cases were discovered and confirmed as positive, and how that was disclosed on the district’s online COVID dashboard.

“At the beginning of last week, I did receive word from (RIDOH) … that a couple of distance learning students had tested positive,” he said. “We were able to confirm there was no contact from those students with any activities in our schools and we were comfortable with the Department of Health moving forward and working with the families.”

By Thursday evening of last week, the district received word of its first positive case within the district (in-person learning). “It happened to be a high school student,” Mr. Kenworthy said, adding that staff members again worked in conjunction with RIDOH on exchanging information for contact tracing. Fortunately, he said, that PHS student was not scheduled to be in school on Friday anyway.

“On Sunday, we had heard, based on the information that we had, what was definitely enough information for me to move forward on suspected cases, but the Department of Health needed a little more time to gather all the information there,” he said.

On Tuesday, the district received confirmation from RIDOH that the two Melville students had tested positive. 

“Additionally, separate from those cases, we received word of a staff member at Melville who has unfortunately tested positive as well,” Mr. Kenworthy said. “We have a total of four classrooms distance learning at Melville. Two are connected to the first set of cases that popped up on Sunday, and two are connected to the case today. (RIDOH) is satisfied that although both these cases happened at Melville, they are totally separate and isolated incidents.”

The Melville classrooms temporarily moved to distance learning “out of an abundance of caution because we knew that the Department of Health would have to do their contact tracing process,” he said, adding the rooms will also be thoroughly cleaned. It takes about two days on average to complete contact tracing, he said.

Mr. Kenworthy asked the school community to be patient while the district works through these issues with RIDOH. He also urged people to use the K-12 testing sites that are now set up as they provide fast results (a reservation is required) and to fill out the daily form on the Aspen portal accurately.

“We need everybody to do that process daily and to really think about the questions that you’re answering,” he said.

Transparency is the goal

The district is trying to be as transparent as possible when it comes to disclosing COVID cases, but needs to be careful about releasing information before getting official confirmation from RIDOH, he said.

School Committee Chair Emily Copeland agreed.

“I know the grapevine in the community is faster than the Department of Health, but the schools cannot put any information on the COVID dashboard until it’s confirmed by the Department of Health. It’s not an issue of not being transparent,” she said.

The committee heard from one resident who made a comment in the Zoom meeting’s chat box. 

“(The Portsmouth School Department) is really doing a great job in managing and communicating,” said Shelley Andrade. “Thank you. This is a hard situation for everyone. Great job handling it.”

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