A Covid outbreak that affected many staff and students in McAuliffe International School occurred on January 23, 2023, likely due to sick people still coming to school. With almost two dozen staff out because of Covid, McAuliffe almost had remote learning again. Furthermore, many students at the school were absent because of sicknesses. Because so many teachers were gone, many classes were taught by substitutes. Although, having substitutes sometimes may not help the students just because they can’t teach the same way the teacher teaches and may not know what they are doing. This outbreak reminds us that the pandemic still can affect schools today.

When asked about what planning had to happen for the school to stay open, Mr. Dennis, the principal, said “We had to figure out how we could cover the classes so that we could have kids learning and supervised with a staff member. Teachers couldn’t take any breaks.”

To solve this outbreak, McAuliffe started offering free Covid tests to any student who might want one. This will help students know if they have Covid so they can stay home and quarantine. It also provided students who may not have access to or can’t get a Covid test so they can take it at school. This can help prevent Covid and other sicknesses from spreading throughout the school.

Adding on, when asked Mr. Dennis how he protected himself from Covid, he responded with “I’ve been vaccinated twice and I have had two boosters. I also wore a mask in crowded areas.”

Thanks to help from the school’s healthy staff, McAuliffe could remain open on Monday, January 23rd. Though there were enough teachers to keep schools open, only a few of them were supervising children during recess and lunch. Although this was a challenge, the school was able to overcome it accurately and addressed it well.