CANNOT OPEN: Too many employees at Munkerud school are in quarantine for school to start as planned on Monday. Here is the principal Anton Rygg together with shop steward Are Røkkum outside the school in 2018. Photo: Frode Hansen
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Due to the fact that an employee is infected with the coronavirus, starting school at Munkerud school on Nordstrand is postponed. More than half of the school’s employees are now in quarantine.
Rector Anton Rygg confirms to VG that the school will be closed on Monday 17.08 and Tuesday 18.08.
– There is only one confirmed case among the staff, but we must think safety for employees, students and parents first. It is unbelievably sad not to be able to open the school now, says Rygg to VG.
More than half of the school’s around 120 employees have been quarantined and will be tested, after the teachers at the school have had a planning week in recent days.
– The health authorities have quarantined so many of the employees that it is not possible to open the school on Monday, he says.
There are around 770 students at the school, which is one of the largest primary schools in Oslo. All parents have been notified.
– We have sent out text messages, school messages, e-mails and tried to get the information out to everyone, says the principal.
On Friday afternoon, the school sent out an SMS to all parents at the school:
«To all parents. It is unbelievably sad to have to go out with a message to you that Munkerud can NOT start on Monday 17.08. The school has been hit by a local outbreak of Covid-19 on key people, who in the start-up and planning week have been in close contact with such a large number of employees that the authorities have quarantined large parts of the staff. In particular, the administration and teaching staff have been affected. We are not aware that any students at the full-time AKS have been close to infection situations “, the principal writes in the SMS.
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Will bring out digital aids
The principal also writes in the SMS that has been sent to parents that they do not envisage that it is possible with any kind of ordinary school day before Monday 24.08 at the earliest.
– We hope that we manage to get a limited offer on Wednesday, for example to be able to open an activity school. We will also try to get digital aids to the students. We have to think of a scenario where this can last longer than a week, says Rygg.
The principal says that the school has received good help from the health authorities. The school first became aware of a possible corona infection on Thursday afternoon.
– We feel that we are taken seriously, that it is a system that acts, and comes with advice. We do not know much more about the extent before Sunday night, but in any case, the employees who are in quarantine must be there for another week.
Rygg says that he thinks it is a very boring decision to have to make, just a few days before school starts.
– I think most of all about the new first classes, which have not been in a class yet, he says.
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