Farmingdale High staffer tests positive for the coronavirus, district says
A Farmingdale High School staffer has tested positive for COVID-19, the school said in a note to parents. Credit: Howard Schnapp
A Farmingdale High School staff member has tested positive for COVID-19, but the person was not in direct contact with students in the building, school officials said.
The staffer was in contact with two other employees, who have been notified and will be required to test for COVID-19 and self-quarantine for 14 days, according to a notice to the school community from Superintendent Paul Defendini.
School officials did not identify the staffer's name or position at the school.
The staff member was tested for the virus after experiencing flu-like symptoms over the three-day Labor Day weekend. The staffer was not present at the school when classes began Tuesday or any day this week, Defendini said.
School nurses certified in contact tracing are working with the Nassau County Department of Health, he said.
"Please note that the Farmingdale High School custodial team has implemented additional rounds of deep cleaning and sanitization … in the rooms where all three staff members were present, on top of its regular nightly regimen in preparation for tomorrow's school day," the superintendent said.
He added, "The health, safety and wellness of our students, faculty, staff and community are the Farmingdale School District's foremost priority."
Farmingdale joins a growing list of at least nine Long Island districts with reported positive cases of staff or students in the days leading up to and since the start of the 2020-21 school term. The other districts are East Meadow, Bellmore-Merrick, Carle Place, Islip, Riverhead, Sewanhaka, Smithtown and Southold.
On Tuesday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the state Health Department would launch an online dashboard to which districts will report any positive cases of staff or students on a daily basis. So far, the dashboard does not show any information.
The state Department of Health said Friday that the website would go live next week. The public will be able to access the "school COVID report card" by going to schoolcovidreportcard.health.ny.gov.
Districts, local health departments and the labs where tests are conducted each will send data to the state Health Department, which will update the results on the website.
"This will give parents and teachers confidence. They will know on a day-to-day basis exactly what is happening," Cuomo said.
Caretakers and teachers will be able to go to the website, type in their child's school or district, and find out how many positive cases it has and the percentage of on-site students who are positive, among other details.
Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
