River Valley Charter School seeing COVID-19 spike

Sep. 22—NEWBURYPORT — A spike in COVID-19 cases at River Valley Charter School has prompted its board of trustees to approve the return of mandated mask wearing in certain classrooms, according to School Director Jonnie Lyn Evans.

Evans said there were recently seven positive COVID cases in a single class during a three-day period with two more cases confirmed in the following three days.

As a result, the trustees voted 8-7 on Tuesday to approve a plan that includes wearing masks for 10 days in a particular classroom where two or more COVID cases are identified in a three-day period.

"This plan, when needed, will help ensure a safe, healthy learning environment that enables educators and students to continue teaching and learning together to the greatest extent possible," Evans said in a statement.

Evans added that the school is "committed to providing our students a safe learning environment that maximizes learning time and deep relationship-building."

Following the positive cases, the school's leaders and health team, including the school physician and nurse leader, partnered with area boards of health and the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to develop appropriate protocols, according to Evans.

"Upon DESE's recommendation, we consulted with the Massachusetts Epidemiology Department, which recommended mitigation of spread through the use of masks in that singular classroom for 14," Evans said.

Before the vote, the board received a letter signed by several parents opposed to the measure.

"At present, we do not believe any valid data has been provided that warrants school-required masking for students who have been exposed to the virus at this stage of the pandemic," reads the letter, which was sent to The Daily News.

"We would like to affirm the recommendations of DESE that our neighboring school districts have adopted: if students are wearing masks at schools, that decision should belong to the parents, not to school administrators."

The letter goes on to warn about detrimental educational outcomes should the mandate be approved.

"We worry that required masking for exposures could lead to a situation where many of our students are again wearing masks for the better part of the year," the letter said. "We are increasingly concerned about the negative impact on learning and development that can happen when students are wearing masks in addition to the anxiety and frustration our children have experienced having to wear a mask throughout the entire school day for weeks at a time."

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, more than a million Americans have died, and more than 95 million cases have been confirmed nationwide.

Locally, there have been 30 cases reported in September with no deaths, according to the city's website. The same website shows that 92 percent of Newburyport residents have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine with 82 percent fully vaccinated. Additionally, 47 percent of Newburyport residents have had at least one booster shot with 12 percent having two.

Local pharmacies such as CVS are holding clinics for the second booster shot. On Wednesday afternoon, there was a steady stream of people waiting to be vaccinated at the pharmacy's Pond Street location.

A phone call to local Board of Health Director Laura Vlasuk for comment was not returned in time for this report.

Dave Rogers is the editor of the Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.

Dave Rogers is the editor of the Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.