Milverton Public School shifts to online learning amid COVID-19 outbreak

COVID-19 outbreak closes Milverton school From CTV Kitchener's Jessica Smith: A COVID-19 outbreak has shutdown Milverton Public School, impacting nearly 300 students.

Milverton — A COVID-19 outbreak has shutdown Milverton Public School, impacting nearly 300 students.

Staff and students were notified of the first positive case of COVID-19 on Sunday.

“At that point all the impacted in the classes were notified by the school and Huron Perth Public Health right away,” said Jeff Bruce, the Superintendent of Education for the Avon Maitland District School Board.

Three classes were asked to stay home on Monday, but the school remained open.

By Wednesday, the public health website listed 10 positive cases - one case in a staff member and nine student cases.

On Thursday, families were notified the school would be closed for at least week starting Friday with classes shifting online.

Criselly Sipple has three children at the school, two of them who are old enough to be vaccinated.

According to Sipple, she was getting conflicting information from public health and the school board about whether her children needed to isolate and get tested.

“Having a concrete setup or mandate for us on what to do would have been better. We’re not three months into a pandemic, we are almost 2 years,” said Sipple. “The communication has been up and down.”

It's a sentiment echoed by the parent school council.

“I think there has been some miscommunication throughout the last 5 days but i think everybody is overwhelmed and trying to do their best,” said Jennifer Londry, the chair of the Milverton Parent School Council.

The school board says the breakdown in communication is a result of the outbreak evolving so quickly.

“One of the challenges that we've had is that there have been a couple of cases over the course of the week, so we have different classes on different schedules,” said Bruce.

In a statement to CTV News, Huron Perth Public Health said they are working closely with the school board to control the outbreak and, “have given instructions to confirmed cases and high-risk close contacts on testing and isolating, and provided guidance to the rest of the school community.”

According to the Avon Maitland District School Board, Milverton Public School is scheduled to reopen for all students for in person learning on Nov. 8.