FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — ABC affiliate WTVD reported that a Fayetteville teacher died after testing positive for COVID-19 less than two weeks ago, according to Capitol Encore Academy officials.
Superintendent Will Kneer told ABC11 that 51-year-old Mary Ward started experiencing symptoms on Oct. 29.
#NEW: A memorial is slowly growing outside @CapitolEncore in downtown Fayetteville for Mary Ward. Superintendent Will Kneer tells @ABC11_WTVD that Ward, who was an art teacher at the charter school, tested positive for #COVID19 on November 1, passing away several days later. pic.twitter.com/utzJT0hLDk
— Michael Lozano (@MLozanoABC11) November 9, 2020
After notifying the school administration, Ward took several tests and received a positive COVID-19 result on Nov. 1.
Capitol Encore Academy officials notified the Cumberland County Department of Public Health of the positive test and shut down in-person and online classes on Nov. 2.
Six days after testing positive, Kneer said Ward was hospitalized and died a day later.
“She was just really special and had a pretty profound impact on, just not her students, but the people she worked with and someone who will be dearly missed,” Kneer told WTVD.
[She loved everybody’: Third-grade teacher dies after recent COVID-19 diagnosis]
Ward was an art teacher at the school for the last two and a half years for kindergarten through eighth grade. The charter school has about 50 faculty members and around 620 students. It had only been doing about 50% in-person learning this school year.
Kneer said no other positive tests have arisen, but they’ve advised several people to self-quarantine out of an abundance of caution.
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