2 Staff Members At Brookline Public Schools Test Positive: State

BROOKLINE, MA — During the first two weeks that school has been in session, two staff members at Brookline Public Schools have tested positive for the coronavirus, both in the second week of school, according to state data.

Across the state 63 Massachusetts students and 34 staff members who have tested positive for the coronavirus between Sept. 24 and 30, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. In neighboring Newton, no staff or students tested positive, in Waltham one student tested positive. No students or staff tested positive in Cambridge or Boston, either.

Brookline Public Schools had not specified that it was an adult when it notified parents that there have been two cases among school "community members." The latest was earlier this week when Brookline High School reported "a community member" tested positive for the virus.

Parents immediately took to social media, some to wonder if the people who tested positive contracted the coronavirus while at school or were believed to have come into contact with anyone in the school buildings once they had it. Those details are not immediately clear.

Neither Interim Superintendent Jim Marini nor Brookline Health Director Swanni Jett responded to request for comment. We'll update when they do.

The district is targeting Oct. 20 as the day students in grades 1 and 2 begin the hybrid model and the date officials are looking at for students in grades 3 through 5 is Oct. 26.

Some parents are counting the days.

Baker parent Carolyn Thall's children have not been in a Brookline school building since March 12, she said. But she said the news of the two cases doesn't alarm her.

"No, not at all. Nor would it alarm me if my kids were in school, either part-time or full-time," she told Patch. "Everyone would be masked, and PSB has gone above and beyond in defining and implementing safety measures recommended by some of the top minds in the world thinking about this right now. We’re living with COVID. There will be cases. It is highly unlikely (all the data and science tell us) that COVID will be transmitted in a school setting. "

Read more:

Brookline High School Community Member Tests Positive For Virus

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