Student, Staff Member At Reading's RISE Preschool Test Positive

READING, MA — Nineteen students and five staff members at the RISE preschool are in quarantine after being identified as close contacts of a student and employee who tested positive for COVID-19, Superintendent John Doherty announced Thursday. The two RISE cases are not related, Doherty said.

Ten students in another RISE class will have to go remote because staff in that classroom have to quarantine.

A student at Barrows Elementary School who was remote this week also tested positive for the virus. There were no close contacts in school, Doherty said.

"We would also like to emphasize that none of the positive cases in our district thus far have been transmitted in school," Doherty said in a statement Thursday. "We want to thank our students, staff, and administrators for creating and establishing a safe and healthy learning environment in our schools."