At least four Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis recently reported five or more positive COVID-19 cases associated with students and staff, but transmission of the novel coronavirus might not have occurred in school buildings.

Emily Dahdah, associate director of Catholic education, said Catholic schools report cases to state health officials even if a student contracts the virus at home while quarantining because a family member has the virus.

“This doesn’t mean transmission is happening in the school building,” Dahdah said.

What action schools take in the event of a reported case of COVID-19 depends on each situation, Dahdah said. But to this point, there have been no large outbreaks of COVID-19 reported in any Catholic school in the archdiocese, she said.

Since the school year began, 74 public and private elementary and high schools across the state have been added to a list that the Minnesota Department of Health first began to release Oct. 2. Information Nov. 5 included St. Thomas More School in St. Paul, St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, Benilde-St. Margaret in St. Louis Park and Providence Academy in Plymouth, marking the first time Catholic schools in the archdiocese were included. The list is updated every Thursday.

When the school year began, the 91 Catholic elementary and high schools in the archdiocese made efforts to start with in-person learning, while retaining flexibility to return to distance learning if that became necessary, Dahdah said. Distance learning was first adopted in schools across the state in March, when the global pandemic hit Minnesota.

Because of community spread of the virus, status of in-person and online learning among Catholic schools could change throughout the year, depending on circumstances, school officials said. Each school is adapting to health and safety protocols that include facial coverings, social distancing, cleaning and disinfecting hallways and classrooms.

The state health department tracks information across the state on various aspects of the pandemic and transmission of the novel coronavirus. In the case of schools, their status is made public if five or more cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, are associated with a given school within a two-week period. Health officials remove schools from the list after they have gone 28 days with no confirmed cases.

St. Thomas More School in St. Paul follows strict safety procedures, said Pat Lofton, principal of the elementary school. To be proactive, the school informs school families, while maintaining confidentiality, not only when someone tests positive, but also when a student or staff member simply reports being tested for possible exposure to the virus, he said.

The school went from zero cases in the first nine weeks of classroom work to eight cases in the last two weeks among its 260 students, Lofton said. One older student has mild symptoms; seven students are asymptomatic. Informing parents that some students were being tested for the virus probably prompted more testing within families, resulting in students without symptoms being found to have the virus, Lofton said. Two staff members also have contracted the virus, but were exposed outside of the school building, he said.

Because of the positive tests, students in one preschool, two elementary and a middle school classroom have been quarantining at home, but will return to in-person learning in coming days, Lofton said. Faculty and staff also are quarantining as necessary, and the school is relying more heavily than usual on substitute teachers, he said.

But identifying asymptomatic students early could help prevent further community spread because they are quarantining away from classmates, their own grandparents or other family members, including those who might be more vulnerable to harsher symptoms of the virus should they come down with COVID-19, Lofton said.

Another proactive decision by St. Thomas More: As a community of parents, staff and students, the school has decided to go to distance-only learning if cases in Ramsey County grow to more than 50 positive cases per 10,000 people tested. As cases in Minnesota rise this fall, that mark could be hit around Thanksgiving, he said.

Students and staff at a second Catholic school on the list, St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, also are following strict safety protocols. Since the school year started, 24 students have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, but symptoms have been mild, said Kelby Woodard, headmaster. Students quarantine for two weeks as necessary, as do those they might have come into contact with at the high school, Woodard said.

Two staff members also have tested positive for the coronavirus since the beginning of the school year, but no faculty members, he said.

Students and staff appear to have contracted the virus outside of the school building, he said.

“We still have zero evidence of any transmission here on campus,” Woodard said.

Students who don’t feel comfortable coming to campus can take advantage of the school’s online learning, which is offered in real time and includes participation while learning remotely, he said. About 3% of the school’s 587 students have opted for online learning this year, for a variety of reasons, he said.