The following message is from City School District of Albany Superintendent Kaweeda G. Adams.
Dear North Albany Middle School Families:
I am writing to let you know that the City School District of Albany was alerted Monday morning that a member of the North Albany Middle School community has been identified as a close contact of another person who has tested positive for COVID-19. The individual, from one of our sixth-grade classrooms, has been out of school since last Thursday, Oct. 15.
In abundance of caution, the district is taking precautionary measures due to the uniqueness of this situation. All in-person sixth-grade students and sixth-grade faculty members will shift to virtual instruction beginning Tuesday, Oct. 20. (Please note that this does NOT apply to students in self-contained special education classrooms). The affected classrooms will be deep-cleaned and sanitized and remain closed until further notice.
All families in the affected classrooms received a phone call Monday informing them about the situation.
North Albany Middle School has implemented additional cleaning and sanitizing procedures in the area of the affected classroom, and all of our buildings district-wide continue to follow these practices. All district buildings also will continue to practice all required COVID-19 precautions (pre-arrival symptom screening and temperature screening for students and staff, wearing masks, hand hygiene, social distancing of 6 feet or more, and other precautions). Our employees will continue to follow these protocols consistently. We would like to remind everyone of steps you can take to help be safe:
- Maintain a social distance of at least 6 feet at all times from those you don’t live with.
- Always wear a mask that covers both the mouth and nose when you are out of your home.
- Wash hands with soap and water frequently when out of your home. If you cannot use soap and water, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
- Don’t touch the eyes, nose or mouth unless your hands are clean.
- DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD TO SCHOOL WHEN THEY ARE SICK OR HAVE SYMPTOMS:
- Signs of COVID-19 are: fever, fatigue/tiredness, muscle/body aches or pains, congestion, cough, runny nose, shortness of breath/difficulty breathing, nausea/vomiting or diarrhea, headache, loss of taste or smell, rash, feeling sick or unwell in any way.
- You can get a COVID-19 test by calling the New York State Department of Health COVID-19 Hotline at (888) 364-3065 or Whitney Young Clinic at (518) 465-4771. You also can find resources here: https://covid19screening.health.ny.gov/
