Sixth graders on pause in person

The Charlotte Central School community reports its first direct case of COVID-19.

Just three days into Charlotte Central School’s first week of four-day in-person sixth-grade learning, students are back home for the rest of the week. According to a letter emailed to families from Champlain Valley School District Superintendent Elaine Pinckney, “a member our school community has tested positive for COVID-19.”

This was also the first week that teachers and school staff across the state were given the opportunity to participate in widespread COVID testing.

Pinckney wrote in her Nov. 18 email that all families with students who were close contacts with the infected individual will be contacted within 24 hours. She said the latest potential exposure was on Tuesday, Nov. 17 so families can quarantine and limit outside contact appropriately.

“We are confident that we’ve shared all critical information with the Vermont Department of Health and that we are poised to follow up with all potentially close contacts,” Pinckney said. She urged parents to monitor students and be on the alert for any typical COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, coughing, shortness of breath, or more uncommon ones including runny nose, sore throat, nausea, lethargy, lack of appetite, vomiting, and diarrhea.

She asks that anyone in the school community who tests positive for COVID-19 alert their physician, the Vermont Department of Health, and the school. There is no school next week for students because of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Pinckney also reminded families that now is the time for compassion for any member of the community who is unwell or has been impacted by the virus.