Little Rock’s Baptist Preparatory School confirmed Saturday night that a parent of one of its high-school students has tested presumptive positive for COVID-19. Upper school principal Levi Miller revealed the news in an email to school parents. The student, a senior, has not exhibited any symptoms but could have been a potential carrier last week, Miller wrote.
Miller said the school is working with the federal Centers for Disease Control and the Arkansas Department of Health for “correct protocol to follow” and will provide updates as warranted.
Meanwhile, a consortium of five other non-public schools in central Arkansas is collaborating to share information and resources in the wake of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s mandating that all Arkansas schools convert to online instruction only by Tuesday. Partnering schools are Catholic High School for Boys, Pulaski Academy, Episcopal Collegiate School, Little Rock Christian Academy and Central Arkansas Christian schools.
In a letter to their school communities emailed Sunday night, school principals Steve Straessle of Catholic, Matt Walsh of PA, David Perkinson of Episcopal, Gary Arnold of Christian and Carter Lambert of CAC informed parents of their desire to speak with one voice.
“Our individual school communities are strengthened by the extensive overlap that exists among families in our various schools, and this wonderful asset inspired us to come together as a group to discuss issues surrounding our handling of the coronavirus. We are certainly looking forward to future similar collaboration in a number of ways,” school leaders wrote. “Our state officials have taken an additional and important containment/mitigation step in choosing to close schools for the next two weeks. We can add to the effectiveness of this effort to ‘flatten the curve’ by refraining from social gatherings during that time… As we all know, our current circumstances are quite unlike a snow day or the typical day off school, and they require rethinking for the time being our normal patterns for gathering and connecting with others. We are all in this together, and times like this afford all of us opportunities to cooperate in our shared best interests.”