The Niagara Falls City School District plans to reopen Maple Avenue Elementary School on Monday, Oct. 19, following a COVID-19 outbreak that forced the school to shut down in late September.
The school has been closed since Monday, Sept. 28, after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. Thirteen additional cases related to the school were identified thereafter, according to a district statement released Tuesday.
“The NFCSD took quick action and under an abundance of caution closed Maple as soon as we heard of the first positive case at the school,” said Superintendent Mark Laurrie. “Our partners at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and the Niagara County Department of Health acted swiftly and organized COVID-19 testing the day after Maple was closed.”
The district said it has now been notified by the county department of health that all of the quarantine orders related to the outbreak will have expired by Monday, “hence the decision to reopen.”
Laurrie announced the decision to close the elementary school in a YouTube video posted on Sept. 27.
