Seward Elementary School will shift to remote learning for the rest of this week, following confirmation of a second positive case of COVID-19 in the school, Pegge Erkeneff, Kenai Peninsula Borough School District communications liaison, said.
The district announced via their risk-levels dashboard on Saturday that they would be moving to remote learning for Monday and Tuesday of this week, however Erkeneff said that families were told Monday that remote learning would continue for the rest of the week.
The first case in Seward Elementary School was reported on Sept. 22 and the second was reported Sept. 25, according to Erkeneff. Through contact tracing, it was determined that there was exposure in the elementary school, so those who had close contact have been told to quarantine for 14 days.
Erkeneff said that the district knows who the two individuals who tested positive are, but that they are not able to say whether or not they are students or staff due to privacy laws.
According to the district’s risk levels dashboard, Eastern Peninsula Schools are at medium risk, except for Seward Elementary which is high risk. When a school is at high risk, it moves to 100% remote learning, Erkeneff said, adding that the shift to remote classes for the rest of the week will allow more test results to come in.
“There could be no more cases and we stay in medium and on Monday school opens back up to on-site learning, so it’s just going to depend on what happens,” Erkeneff said. “If the case counts do continue to rise through the week, it’s possible that all three of our area schools, so Seward Middle and Seward High School, would all go to 100% remote learning.”
