After learning on Oct. 9 that a parent of a member had tested positive for COVID-19, officials at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley closed the club for 10 days to allow to testing of the member, staff and others at the the club.
The club reopened on Monday, Oct. 19.
In the week following the temporary closure of the Club, the young member also tested positive, according to Club spokesperson Michael Irvine, but as of Oct. 18, Irvine was aware of no other cases.
“We have taken every precaution advised by the Sonoma County Health Department in dealing with this,” said Irvine. Staff was sent home to quarantine and officials at the nonprofit arranged testing for all staff who might have come in contact with the member and made testing available to all other staff.
Staff notified parents of children in the pod where the child is conducting their distance learning, as well as all other parents of kids who had recently attended the club.
Anyone that participated in the pod of the positive member—staff and students included—needed a negative test result in order to return to the site, said Irvine.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley has been operating summer and distance learning programming since June and this was its first positive COVID case, according to the club.
According to club officials, all staff and kids have their temperatures taken before they may enter the building and masks are required at all times once inside. Parents drop their kids off in the parking lot and may not leave their vehicles. Everyone in the car when a child is dropped off must confirm they are free of symptoms and, to their knowledge, have not been exposed. Additionally, restrooms are cleaned every 30 minutes during the day and the club is deep-cleaned nightly.
On a typical day this month, there were 60 to 70 students and a dozen staff members in the Maxwell Park facility, according to Irvine.
The nonprofit’s planned expansion to additional sites to provide more distance learning support in partnership with the Sonoma Valley Unified School District was briefly put on hold but a second site for the Club’s support of distance learning opened at Altimira Middle School on Oct. 19.
The new Altimira campus site will have two pods of 14 elementary school students each and four staff members.
Contact Lorna at lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.
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