Schools in Millinocket, East Millinocket and Medway will delay their start by two weeks, as six East Millinocket school staff – including the superintendent – and two students tested positive for the coronavirus after an August 7 wedding in the area.
A staff member from the East Millinocket School Department hired as a musician at the wedding reception at the Big Moose Inn tested positive after coming into direct contact with the wedding party and guests, according to Superintendent Eric Steeves.
Other staff members of the school department were also present at the wedding, Steeves said, but none were in the school building the week after the party. They were all tested and quarantined once they learned they were exposed to the virus.
The six employees of the school department who tested positive for the virus are Steeves, two administrators and three staff members, including the marriage musician, the superintendent said.
Steeves said he did not know how the students became infected.
The school department’s virus cases and the delayed start of the school year are the latest ripple effects of the wedding and reception that took place at the Tri Town Baptist Church in East Millinocket and the Big Moose Inn on Millinocket Lake, respectively. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention has now linked 85 cases to the marriage, with marriage guests making up 32 of the cases.
State health authorities have linked the marriage to two other virus outbreaks – in a nursing home in Madison that has six cases and the York County Jail, which has recorded 18 cases. One woman, who was not at the wedding, died as a result of the outbreak.
School administrators in East Millinocket, Millinocket and Medway agreed to postpone the opening of schools by two weeks as a result of the outbreak, Steeves said.
East Millinocket schools will begin remote instruction for the first few weeks of the school year until the Maine CDC department hears that the outbreak is under control. Elementary school students will learn remotely until Sept. 28, and high school students until Oct. 5, Steeves said.
Millinocket will open its schools on Sept. 14 open for four days a week of personal learning. Families can also opt for remote instruction that allows students to tune in to lessons learned in person, according to Superintendent Frank Boynton. All students will learn remotely every Friday morning, and Friday afternoons will be reserved for workshops where teachers will work on improving virtual learning skills.
In East Millinocket, most staff members and managers, including Steeves, are quarantined at least until next week. The Maine CDC ordered East Millinocket to close its school building – which includes both Opal Myrick Elementary School and Schenck High School – until it could continue through deep cleaning, which took place from August 17 to August 20.
“As a result, we are behind in getting things ready for school,” Steeves said. “Because our school was so directly affected, we thought it would be a better idea to start online and warn until CDC gives us some information.”
The school building reopened last week for staff, but at reduced capacity. Meanwhile, East Millinocket’s city office was closed this week after a staff member working at the public swimming pool tested positive, said Angela Cote, the city’s administrative assistant.
The city office was shut down because children of some city employees were in contact with the pool employee, according to Cote, who said her child was among them.
Cote said she does not know if the pool employee who tested positive had any link to the wedding.
