Okarche Public Schools junior high and high school students, 7th through 12th grades, have gone to virtual learning due to a COVID-19 outbreak, Superintendent Josh Sumrall reported Thursday.
“The Okarche Junior High and High School have had an outbreak of COVID-19 cases, which has resulted in over 50% of students being absent,” Sumrall reported.
“Therefore, in an attempt to slow the spread, the Junior High and High School (7th-12th grade) will transition to virtual learning starting Friday, November 13th through Tuesday, November 24th.”
Sumrall reports that teachers have prepared students for virtual learning over the last couple of months.
Sumrall in August made the decision for students to start the semester with in-person learning. Masks were not required, but were recommended in the district.
“We hope that this time frame will allow those that are sick two weeks to recover and will also allow those in quarantine to have their 14 day quarantine expire,” Sumrall reported.
The district will return to in-person school on November 30th, after Thanksgiving Break. All extra-curricular activities will be canceled starting tonight through November 24th. This includes the JH basketball games scheduled for tonight and Saturday in Hydro-Eakly and the HS basketball game scheduled for Friday, November 13th, Sumrall reports.
“The elementary currently has zero students with a positive COVID-19 case. Therefore, the elementary will continue with in-person school at this time. We will continue to monitor the elementary and their absences and will make a decision day-by-day. We feel that the JH/HS students are better equipped to handle virtual learning and the elementary students need to be in-person as much as possible and will try to avoid virtual learning, if at all possible. There will be some elementary teachers teaching from home by zooming in to the classroom. However, there will be a teacher or teacher’s aide in every classroom.
Thank you for being patient with us during this time and we will continue monitoring our numbers on a daily basis.”
Current Numbers reported show:
JH/HS
6 students have tested positive
2 Staff members have tested positive
85 Students are absent due to quarantine
Elementary
1 Staff member recovered from COVID-19 and will return Friday
1 Staff member tested positive today
1 Staff member on quarantine
24 Students are on quarantine due to exposure outside of school.
Read The Okarche Warrior and okarchewarrior.com for updates.
