During the first week of October, one of the public schools in south Pacific County was closed due to the rapid progression of COVID-19 throughout the staff and students. The school reopened Monday, October 11.
"Circumstances called for a reset, a chance for the school to take a breather, have everyone go home and stop spreading COVID," commented Pacific County Health and Human Services Director Katie Lindstrom. She mentioned that closing a school is not an ideal situation, but sometimes it will happen.
"The primary goal this year is to keep kids in school and try not to have to go back to remote learning," Lindstrom continued.
The PCHS put out a list of possible triggers to close classrooms or schools during their COVID forum on Thursday, October 7. These are the guidelines that the county is looking at regarding schools.
Possible Triggers to close an entire classroom:
- Two or more COVID-19 cases among students or staff with a 14-day period, who are epidemiologically linked, do not share a household, and did not have significant contact outside of school grounds
Possible Triggers to close an entire school:
- Schools with fewer than 10 classrooms: if 2 or more classrooms are closed
- Larger schools: if more than 10% of classrooms are closed
- If there is a rapid increase in cases
- If there are 2 or more generations of transmission
- If there are not enough staff for school to function