Niagara Falls residents get a chance Thursday evening to find out why the school system is re-opening Maple Avenue School after a COVID-19 case.
That one infection of an adult employee turned into 13 cases and shut the building for three weeks. Schools Superintendent Mark Laurrie said there were a lot of complaints, but school staff knew other phases of the situation and that's why the school was closed summarily.
"It was in our smallest school and through the contact tracing, that information was readily shared by families to the county," Laurrie said. "I was hoping that it wouldn't have gotten to 12 additional people, but in that area, it was the right call. There were things that we knew because of the nature of the first case and how that person was working with children that had caused us to make that decision."
He gets a chance at 6 p.m. to explain the closing, the re-opening on Monday and what's going on with hybrid and remote learning options. It will also be on YouTube, which is accessible on the laptops every kid in the school system has.
Laurrie said communication with families is really a key way to deal with the pandemic and that includes daily updates he prepares and posts online. There have been no other positive cases in the school system.
