NMPED News:
SANTA FE — A high school in Farmington has become the third of New Mexico’s 840 public schools to face a mandatory, 14-day return to remote instruction in the nearly two months following widespread school reentry.
Piedra Vista High School received the closure order Tuesday after reporting four Rapid Responses in 14 days, the state’s conservative threshold to prevent spread of COVID-19.
Piedra Vista, which has about 1,460 students, has up to seven days to close and then must remain closed for 14 days.
Eldorado High School in Albuquerque April 13 became the first public school required to return to remote instruction for 14 days, a period that ended April 27. Yucca Middle School in Clovis received a closure order May 11 and returned to in-person learning today (May 25).
About 40 schools have returned voluntarily to remote instruction temporarily since April 5 in an abundance of caution after a few cases or due to student or staff quarantines as close contacts.
“All the metrics continue to show that schools are safe places and are not contributing to community spread,” Public Education Secretary Ryan Stewart said. “Our safety protocols, including three mandatory closures, are keeping us safe as overall school case numbers decline, positivity rates remain incredibly low and vaccination numbers for everyone age 12 and up continue to increase.”
The Rapid Response system, which tracks potential outbreaks at the earliest stages, is part of New Mexico’s COVID safety net.
A Rapid Response is one or more positive cases at a school that were infectious while on campus. All cases that a school was notified of on a single day, along with all cases with test dates through the following day, are grouped into a single rapid response. Read the complete COVID-19 Rapid Response Watchlist here.
Only the individual school that reaches the four-in-14 threshold is required to return to remote learning. Other schools in the same district are not impacted.
The New Mexico Environment Department keeps track of Rapid Responses based on its own reports and those from other state agencies, including the Public Education Department.
In addition to the closure list, the Environment Department produces a Watchlist of locations with two or more Rapid Responses. Fourteen New Mexico public schools were on the Watchlist Monday, down from a high of 68 on May 6.