Broward preschool camp suspended after two teachers test positive for COVID-19

Devoun Cetoute, Carli Teproff
·2 min read

Two teachers at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, resulting in the preschool camp being suspended, officials said Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning, the community center learned that a second preschool staff member and that person’s child had tested positive for COVID-19, said Scott Ehrlich, CEO of the David Posnack JCC.

This came after a teacher had tested positive last week, Ehrlich said.

After being closed for several months, the preschool reopened June 1 with a slew of new rules, including daily cleaning with an electrostatic spray gun. The school year ended on June 12. The preschool camp, which is for ages three months to 5 years old, opened Monday with 80 campers.

“The fact is nothing is fail proof,” Ehrlich said. “It is hard to say where people get it.”

Last Tuesday, June 9, the center learned a teacher had tested positive for the virus. The eight kids in her class and their parents were tested. A second teacher came to work on Monday of this week and during a routine check-in with staffers, she said she had a runny nose and was immediately sent home, Ehrlich said.

When Ehrlich learned of the second teacher’s positive COVID-19 results on Wednesday, he suspended the preschool camp immediately and parents were told to pick up their children. He said it was “the responsible thing to do.”

“We didn’t have to close the entire preschool, but we said let’s do it and get it done and then reopen in a reasonable amount of time,” Ehrlich said.

He said administrators would formulate a reopening plan within the next couple of weeks.

The suspension will continue until further notice and all 35 faculty and staff members will be tested. The community center advised the preschool families to also be tested. The entire preschool building will be “thoroughly cleaned and disinfected,” Ehrlich said in an email to the community center members and parents of the camp for older children.

Because the preschool is separate from the rest of the community center and uses a different AC unit, all other areas of the JCC and summer camp will remain open, Ehrlich said.