The Sitka School District is in the red, after the city hit a threshold for new coronavirus cases this week.
According to the school district’s Smart Start plan, 12 or more new COVID-19 cases over a two-week period triggers a district-wide shift to “high alert” and schools move to virtual instruction.
But Superintendent John Holst said hitting the number 12 doesn’t mean they’re going to shut schools down automatically. There are other factors to consider.
“At this point, we’re looking back at each one of these cases to see if, for some reason, we should be discounting it, because they’re not all created equal,” Holst said. “Some of them have to do with our own staff, and many of them do not. And infections outside of the school [do not] impact us as much as infections in school.”
Last week, two Sitka School District staff members tested positive for the coronavirus, including a staffer at Pacific High, and another employee who isn’t associated with any particular building.
Holst would not confirm whether any of this week’s new cases were connected to the Sitka School District, but did say that none of the new cases were found via the regular asymptomatic testing of faculty.
Holst said schools will remain open on Wednesday (11-4-20). The increase in community coronavirus cases coincides with a short school week– students will already be out of the buildings for parent-teacher conferences on Thursday and Friday. Holst said that will give the district a bit of a buffer while they wait and see whether keeping schools open next week will be possible.
“At this point, we’re hoping that all the people who got infected and have been quarantining have not infected anyone else,” he said. “So we’re hopeful that this could slow down dramatically here in the next couple of days, or it could keep on going. The next two days are going to be really crucial.”
Holst said their main priority on Wednesday is to make sure all students go home with their iPads or laptops, just in case they need to shift to virtual learning next week. If most schools shift to online instruction, it’s likely that Baranof Elementary will still remain open to students.
“If we do go virtual everywhere else, we’re probably going to be open there unless things are really bad,” he said. And the reason staff wants to do that is they really believe there’s irreparable damage being done to kindergarten and first graders not being in school.”
Holst said they’ll likely make a decision on whether to remain open next week by Thursday evening. If they move to virtual instruction, teachers will still work from their classrooms.
