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Six COVID-19 Cases Linked to Williamstown's Pine Cobble School

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Four children and two faculty members from Pine Cobble School have tested positive for COVID-19, the private school's head reported on Friday.
 
Ten days after a kindergarten teacher went home with a fever, the ensuing tests have turned up six cases, Sue Wells said.
 
"All the cases are contained to the kindergarten families, and the teachers in the kindergarten," she said.
 
All of the families in that kindergarten cohort were ordered by public health officials to either be tested for the novel coronavirus or quarantine for 14 days, Wells said.
 
The school sent home the kindergarten pupils and any siblings on Wednesday, Sept. 9, the day a teacher first reported symptoms.
 
Due to HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) concerns, Wells said she could not disclose whether she knew if any of the other five people who subsequently have tested positive ever displayed COVID-19 symptoms.
 
After the initial teacher's test came back positive for the virus on Sept. 12, the school announced it would go to fully remote instruction for at least two weeks starting on Monday, Sept. 14.
 
Wells said Friday that Pine Cobble, which tested its entire school community prior to the start of classes on Sept. 8, plans to conduct another round of tests on the entire community -- faculty, staff and pupils -- on Friday, Sept. 25.
 
Pending the results of those tests, the school still hopes to reopen for in-person instruction on Tuesday, Sept. 29, Wells said.

Tags: COVID-19,   school reopening,   


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Williams Seeking Town Approval for New Indoor Practice Facility

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Planning Board last week gave Williams College the first approval it needs to build a 55,000-square foot indoor athletic facility on the north side of its campus.
 
Over the strenuous objection of a Southworth Street resident, the board found that the college's plan for a "multipurpose recreation center" or MRC off Stetson Road has adequate on-site parking to accommodate its use as an indoor practice facility to replace Towne Field House, which has been out of commission since last spring and was demolished this winter.
 
The college plans a pre-engineered metal that includes a 200-meter track ringing several tennis courts, storage for teams, restrooms, showers and a training room. The athletic surface also would be used as winter practice space for the school's softball and baseball teams, who, like tennis and indoor track, used to use the field house off Latham Street.
 
Since the planned structure is in the watershed of Eph's Pond, the college will be before the Conservation Commission with the project.
 
It also will be before the Zoning Board of Appeals, on Thursday, for a Development Plan Review and relief from the town bylaw limiting buildings to 35 feet in height. The new structure is designed to have a maximum height of 53 1/2 feet and an average roof height of 47 feet.
 
The additional height is needed for two reasons: to meet the NCAA requirement for clearance above center court on a competitive tennis surface (35 feet) and to include, on one side, a climbing wall, an element also lost when Towne Field House was razed.
 
The Planning Board had a few issues to resolve at its March 12 meeting. The most heavily discussed involved the parking determination for a use not listed in the town's zoning bylaws and a decision on whether access from town roads to the building site in the middle of Williams' campus was "functionally equivalent" to the access that would be required under the town's subdivision rules and regulations.
 
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