Williamstown Teacher Tests Positive for COVID-19

A teacher at a small private school in Williamstown has tested positive to COVID-19, prompting the school to move to remote learning.

iBerkshires reports that a teacher at Pine Cobble school tested positive for the virus Friday, after leaving the school Wednesday with a fever, according to Sue Well, the head of the private grade school. Because of that positive test, the school will move to remote learning for the next two weeks. The students in that teacher's class specifically have been learning from home since the teacher felt ill

We do have a protocol in place that if there's a positive case in a classroom, that classroom will go remote for two weeks, and if there's a second [positive test], the school will go remote. In this case, we decided to go fully remote.

The entire school community was tested before the start of school and Wells said the school likely will need to do another round of asymptomatic tests before a return to in-person learning when the two weeks or remote are up.

The students in that teacher's class were encouraged to have tests done at Berkshire Medical Center even before the teacher's test result came back. Once the teacher's was confirmed positive it was mandatory for every student to be tested.

Williamstown Health Inspector Jeff Kennedy told the Board of Health that an administrator from Pine Cobble called him as soon as the positive test result came in.

Families of students at the private school are required to complete a health survey on their child each day before arrival at the school. No one, faculty or staff, is allowed on school grounds without that confirmation from Wells that the surveys have been completed.