A Mount Vernon school employee at the district offices has tested positive for the coronavirus.    

The first day of school for students is tomorrow, and school officials say they're looking at this case as a practice run of what they will most likely deal with this school year. "It's all part of the process. We're all in this together, and we'll make the best of it," says Mount Vernon Schools Superintendent Dr. Kenneth Hamilton.

 

Dr. Hamilton says it was this past Friday when he received a call that a school employee who works at the district offices tested positive for coronavirus.

He says he immediately reached out to the Westchester County Health Department. "They partnered with me all weekend. We were very concerned about starting the contact tracing because we knew people would be out and about for the holiday weekend, and I have to say they worked around the clock to be supportive."

Crews have been brought in to do a deep cleaning of the building, and contact tracers helped reach out to any workers who may have come into contact with the infected employee.

School officials say, so far, people have cooperated in getting tested.

Mount Vernon's school district begins classes tomorrow with students learning remotely from home, and teachers instructing from the classroom.

In the meantime, the school district office building on North Columbus Avenue is closed for the rest of the week as the building will get a thorough cleaning and sanitizing. The building is expected to reopen on Monday.

Dr. Hamilton say this case has actually served as a learning experience. "It's a good test case for how we will implement our plan when kids are back and we face a positive case which I suspect is going to be inevitable."

As of now, the plan is for in-person classes to begin in October