Another Lexington County school goes to online-only classes due to COVID-19 concerns
For the second week in a row, the Lexington 2 school district is temporarily closing an elementary school in West Columbia and sending the students to virtual classrooms because of coronavirus concerns.
Beginning Thursday, Congaree Elementary School students will be in online-only classrooms for the rest of 2020 because the school district’s coronavirus safety protocol was triggered, spokeswoman Dawn Kujawa said in a news release.
More than 10% of the staff at the school either have tested positive for COVID-19 or are in quarantine for having close contact with a positive case, according to the release. It has created a hardship in school operations.
Because that happened, all students are moved to remote learning for 10 days, Kujawa said.
“We know this will be a hardship for some of our families, but we are committed to maintaining safety protocols we’ve put into place,” officials said in a statement on the school’s website. “Congaree families should receive further instructions about the instructions for virtual learning from their child’s teachers or from school administrators.”
With a half-day before winter break on Friday, Congaree students will not return to in-person, face-to-face classes until Jan. 4 at the earliest.
Families of Congaree students can order free student meals online for Thursday and Friday at PayPams.com, and can call food services at 803-739-8381 for additional help with meals.
Information on the number of employees who have been confirmed to have the coronavirus or are in quarantine was not made available by the school district.
Congaree Elementary is near the intersection of Main Street/Edmund Highway and Ramblin Road.
On Dec. 8, Lexington 2 announced that Wood Elementary School students were moving to online-only classrooms because of the COVID-19 safety protocol. Like Congaree, students at Wood, which is also in West Columbia, aren’t scheduled to return to the school building until Jan. 4.
In early December, more than 20 Lexington 2 teachers were out multiple days, in what appeared to be a protest against the district’s coronavirus policies. A “higher than normal” number of teachers were out at Airport High School and Brookland-Cayce High School, and both schools continued to operate with replacement staff, the district said.
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This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 9:12 AM.
