Another Midlands school goes virtual with 41% of student body in quarantine
Another Midlands school is shifting from in-person instruction to all-virtual after two out of every five students have been sent home for COVID-related reasons.
Centerville Elementary School in Gilbert will shift to online instruction for two weeks after the number of students with diagnosed cases of COVID-19, COVID-like symptoms or an exposure to someone with the virus added up to 41% of the student body. Fifteen percent of staff are also currently excluded from school.
Lexington 1 Superintendent Greg Little told parents in an email sent Friday that all students will be in online classes next week, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3. In-person classes will resume on Sept. 7, after the Labor Day holiday.
“Please know we did not make this decision lightly, as a shift in instructional model impacts all families,” Little wrote.
Earlier in the week, Little warned the district was already seeing higher numbers of COVID-19 cases than Lexington 1 had seen all of last school year. He said then the strategy was to shift affected classes to a virtual platform before entire schools, and school before making such a drastic shift across the whole district.
Also on Friday, Cayce Elementary School in Lexington 2 shifted to virtual classes for two weeks because of a similar outbreak there.
Elementary schools are bearing some of the biggest impacts of the most recent COVID-19 spike. Children under the age of 12 are unable to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
During the shutdown, parents will be able to pick up free student meals from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday in the Centerville Elementary bus loop.
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 2:43 PM.
.jpg)