The Salisbury School closes to “deep clean” amid potential coronavirus exposure

SALISBURY, Md. – A private school in Salisbury closed on Wednesday in order to deep clean after alerting parents on Tuesday that students may have been exposed to coronavirus over winter break.

No positive cases have been confirmed on Maryland’s Eastern Shore or at The Salisbury School. However administrators say there are students at the school who were potentially exposed to the coronavirus while on a domestic flight home at the end of winter break. Bev Dearing, Head of School, says the family was notified after officials with the State Health Department called them.

Dearing says all members of that family are healthy and have not been diagnosed with the virus. “They will be beyond the 14 day period of time for isolation this weekend.”

“To be cautious, we are closing school and canceling all school activities, including the all-school musical rehearsals, starting tomorrow, Wednesday, March 11, 2020, and remaining closed for the rest of the week. We will be doing another deep cleaning of the school and reopen on Monday, March 16, 2020.”

Meanwhile, the Upper School academic program will continue with virtual classrooms to make sure students “do not fall behind in learning objectives and curriculum”.

Dearing says, “The Salisbury School was not asked by the health department to close, rather we choose to do so to be proactive and protective of our students. During the three days our students are away from school, we are engaging in an additional deep cleaning, which is always good to do at a school during the regular flu season.”

School administrators did not provide specific details about where the students may have been exposed to the coronavirus.