WINTHROP, Maine (WGAN) Teachers and principals in Winthrop are urging the school board to close schools for two weeks as they continue to experience coronavirus outbreaks.

A member of the Winthrop Educators Association says they understand that going remote for two weeks, which was recommended by the Maine CDC, would be difficult for families, but they’re confident they can continue to teach students during that time.

“This is a difficult balance, but we ask that the school board follow through with its promise at the beginning of the year when it said it would follow the CDC guidance and close our schools until this COVID wave slows down,” said Marcia Luszczki, Co-President of the Winthrop Educators Association.

According to the Kennebec Journal, the superintendent and the Winthrop Public School Committee called an emergency meeting Tuesday. They decided to close schools on Nov. 22nd and 23rd, and will add those days back to the end of the school year calendar. Initially, students would have attended classes remotely those two days.

Superintendent Jim Hodgkin says they have been doing everything they can to slow the spread of the virus, and were hopeful the delta variant would have come and gone by now, but the virus continues to spread in schools and the community. He says staff are experiencing “an exceptional high level of stress.”

Changing the 22nd and 23rd to “no-school” days was among a handful of options being considered at Tuesday’s meeting, including making the week of November 15th-19th a remote week.

Winthrop is located in Kennebec County where the case rate per 10,000 people is about 871, making it the fifth highest in the state. About 67% of residents there are vaccinated.