NYC’s Horace Mann School Closes as Student Tested for Virus
Horace Mann School Closes After Testing Student for Coronavirus
(Bloomberg) -- New York prep school Horace Mann is closing until March 31 after notifying parents that one of its students was being tested for coronovirus.
“If the student involved tests positive for the coronavirus, we will be in touch with those of you who may have come in contact with this individual,” Thomas Kelly, head of school, wrote on Monday.
The private school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx is one of several in the city affected. The Ethical Culture Fieldston School is also closing Tuesday and will resume classes March 30, according to a letter sent to parents Monday.
Brearley School, an all-girls institution on the Upper East Side, said Sunday it will cancel classes until March 30 because a parent was being tested for the virus. The test proved negative, the school said Monday, but it still planned to shut down a week before its scheduled spring break.
Two other Upper East Side schools also announced that they’re closing through spring break, citing concerns about the virus: the all-boys Browning School and the all-girls Nightingale-Bamford School.
“Guidance from health experts is increasingly to operate under the assumption that the virus will continue to spread, and it will eventually impact our community more directly,” Nightingale-Bamford Head of School Paul Burke said in an email to parents.
Last week, Collegiate School and Spence School closed on Friday for a cleaning because a parent was undergoing a test, which came back negative. Both reopened Monday.
New York City public schools remain open, while those in the Westchester County town of Scarsdale have closed for the week.
--With assistance from Katya Kazakina.
To contact the reporter on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill
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