At least 145 employees at LM Wind Power in Grand Forks have tested positive for COVID-19, one of which was a spouse of an employee working at Highland Elementary School.
“First of all, to shed some light on what happens – if we hear anything about a child, or family member of a child that might have some signs or symptoms or is sick, ill, we immediately get that to our nurse Laurie Coauette,” said Highland School Principal Chris Trostad. “She does a great job. She communicates with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) almost daily. And so, then, we ask for guidance, and Laurie will get information back and share that with myself. We had a situation where we had an employee’s spouse that tested positive about five days after that person had been working with one child in our daycare.”
Trostad said, contrary to other information that has been shared, the school reached out to the Minnesota Department of Health to notify them of the COVID-19 case’s relation to the district and to seek guidance. “Once we learned of that, we contacted the MDH,” said Trostad. “I think there is some misinformation on some social media things I’ve read. MDH did not notify us, we contacted the MDH with Laurie Coauette, our nurse. They ended up sending us back some guidance. They classified it as very low risk because neither the worker or the child had any symptoms when they were together, and it was five days later when the employee’s spouse tested positive. So, I think we’re doing a really good job with Laurie communicating with families. They are doing a really good job about sharing potential issues, contacting the MDH, getting guidance, and even sometimes the MDH has a sample letter that I can send home to parents notifying parents as much as we can.”
Trostad commended custodial staff who have been disinfecting the school throughout each day. “Our custodial staff, I want to commend them too,” said Trostad. “They’re cleaning and disinfecting like crazy. When the kids go for lunch, they are going into the daycare area to disinfect. When the kids go outside, they are going in to disinfect. I know everything is being disinfected as best as possible, multiple times a day. So, I just wanted the information out there that if we learn of anything, we contact the department of health and look for guidance. Then, whatever they tell us, that’s what we’ve been doing. Laurie Coauette has been doing a great job of that, but I feel there has been some misinformation on social media. The MDH didn’t notify us, we notified the MDH and asked for guidance. If any parents have any questions, they can contact me, or Laurie Coauette here at Highland School, and we’d be more than happy to answer any questions they might have.”
Trostad said that in addition to classifying the risk of transmission to the daycare as low risk, the MDH’s guidance was to continue to monitor and check for symptoms among staff and children. “The guidance from the MDH is simply to continue to monitor signs and symptoms,” said Trostad. “We check temps, and if there’s any signs or symptoms that children have, they can’t stay in the daycare, they have to go home. And if there are signs or symptoms that a family member is having, families have been really good about keeping their kids away from daycare. We’ve had two situations that were kind of close. And then the families keeping the kids out of the school or the employee staying out of the school, I think, due to information being provided to us as fast as possible, we’ve been able to eliminate having any of that COVID-19 get into our daycare.”
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