Falmouth Teachers To Receive Rapid COVID Tests In Schools

FALMOUTH, MA — Teachers in the Falmouth School District will be able to receive a rapid COVID-19 test if they develop symptoms while at school starting Feb. 21. Teachers who have symptoms before the school day begins are asked to remain home, superintendent Lori Duerr said at the district’s School Committee meeting Tuesday night.

“If they start developing symptoms while they’re at work, we’ll be able to offer that as a benefit to our staff that they won’t have to leave and get a test in a different location,” Duerr said at the meeting.

The district is beginning by testing only staff, but may expand to include students depending on the capacity of the nurse's office. Listening to the input of the nurses to see how they feel about expanding testing will be crucial, Duerr said.

"I want to work with the nurses closely," she said. "They're on the frontline."

Since tests will be administered in schools, school nurses have been moved to Phase One of the vaccine timeline. Falmouth school nurses will receive their first doses on Jan. 16, and their second doses 28 days later. All of the nurses will be vaccinated, Duerr said.

The school district has the tests and is waiting for the nurses to be vaccinated before administration can begin. Each of Falmouth's seven school buildings has a nurse and a health assistant—the health assistants were hired this year to help with the nurses' increased workload. These assistants are not eligible for vaccines, Duerr said in an interview with Patch Friday, though the district has asked the state to move them into the first phase and has the support of Falmouth Health Agent Scott McGann.

State education officials announced in November that 134 Massachusetts school districts would receive testing supplies. At the time, the commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Jeffrey Riley, said in a news conference that the testing would help with contact tracing and stopping the spread in schools.

"By testing students and teachers and getting results within minutes, we will be able to identify infected individuals and their close contacts more quickly and to help stop any spread," Riley said.