Newton Public Schools To Offer Free Coronavirus Testing For Staff

NEWTON, MA — Free coronavirus testing for asymptomatic Newton Public School faculty and staff working in-person with students is slated to begin later this month, Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said Friday.

"The City will support the Newton Public Schools by paying for these in-person faculty and staff tests and hopes to be reimbursed through our allocation of CARES Act funding," Fuller said. "These funds are scheduled to expire on Dec. 31. If the federal government does not extend this funding, I am committed to continuing to pay for these tests."

The program is voluntary and free and staff that work with in-person students will be able to get tested once a month for now. Though the hope is to increase that frequency as the program lasts through the end of February, according to the mayor.

"We want to test as many people as possible," said School Committee Chair Ruth Goldman in an interview. "Everybody's been wanting surveillance testing, we've been talking about it with the union since late August."

Goldman said the district is hoping to test every staff and faculty member in the school who wants to be tested before Christmas break.

"We're hoping to start the first tests the week of the 14th and get folks tested before Christmas break really in the hope of helping people have a safe holiday and averting asymptomatic people from spreading it around," she said.

A group of parents dubbed "Safer Teachers, Safer Students" has been pushing Newton Public Schools to follow the lead of neighboring communities like Wellesley and perform random coronavirus tests on students and faculty to help prevent a potential "silent" outbreak and build confidence in a return to school.

Superintendent David Fleishman first mentioned that Newton Health and Human Services were working on an asymptomatic testing program Wednesday during a School Committee meeting.

"We've gotten lots of questions about testing," he said. "We're at a time where cases are going up, and while the numbers in Newton are not as high as other communities, they have increased. I can tell you that our HHS team are actively working on a testing program for the Newton Public Schools."

The testing program for asymptomatic faculty comes as the School Committee approved a long-awaited plan Wednesday to reopen Newton North and South high schools to in-person student learning by the end of January.

As of Dec. 2 in Newton there have been 1,611 people who have tested positive for the virus. Of those, 154 have died. Newton had an incidence rate of 20.2 per 100,000 people for the past two weeks ending on Dec. 1 and a positivity rate of 1.09 percent during that time period. Both are rising, according to state data.

A total of 52 people in the Newton Public Schools community have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the school year, up nine people since last week. Of the new cases, two were in-person students, three are in-person hybrid staff members and four are remote learning students.

Newton Public Schools will be working with a company called CIC Health to bring nasal swab PCR tests to be processed through Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard labs.

Last month the district announced it was set to offer testing for symptomatic students with rapid coronavirus testing state pilot program for symptomatic individuals, which uses an antigen test. That pilot testing program will be administered by Newton Health and Human Services through school nurses and is expected to be operational after the new year.

"The well-being of our staff and our students was at the center of the decision," said Fuller.

Related:

• Newton Parents Ask For Coronavirus Testing At Schools
• Newton Schools To Get Rapid Coronavirus Tests From State ...

Jenna Fisher is a news reporter for Patch. Got a tip? She can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna). Have a something you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how.