Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at the Sun Sentinel.
On Palm Beach County’s first day of school, the school district reported that four teachers and a non-teaching school district employee tested positive for COVID-19. It was not clear when or where they were infected.
The individual teachers and the other worker were not identified, but the school district’s COVID-19 dashboard shows that they work at Eagles Landing Middle in Boca Raton, Howell L. Watkins Middle in Palm Beach Gardens, John I. Leonard High in Greenacres, Olympic Heights Community High in Boca Raton and an unnamed maintenance and plant operation facility.
The dashboard says no students reported positive cases as of Wednesday.
The school district says the data on the dashboard is current as of Tuesday and is updated twice daily; once at 10 a.m. and again at 10 p.m.
The school district said it does not have access to the specifics of any of their employees’ medical information.
“For confidentiality reasons, that info isn’t shared,” Julie Houston Trieste, a school district spokeswoman, said in an email. “Employees must report a positive infection to their supervisor and then the health department takes over with contact tracing and notification of those who may be affected.”
“Once all of that is complete, the dashboard is updated. So we don’t have details of who, where or when. That’s all the health department,” Trieste said in an email.
This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.
