Apollo-Ridge school closes for a week amid rise in covid-19 cases

Apollo-Ridge School District closed its high school Thursday after two staff members and a student tested positive for covid-19.

The district learned of the positive cases on Monday, said Superintendent Matthew Curci.

The day before, the district was alerted to a staff member at the elementary school who tested positive. These were the first cases recorded thus far by the school district, he said.

All students in grades nine through 12 are now attending school virtually.

In-person classes are expected to resume Thursday, Nov. 19, Curci said.

Previously, the high school and the rest of the school district offered full in-person instruction and remote learning.

Working with the state Department of Health, the district identified about 90 students and staff members who were in close contact with the three people who contracted the virus and who needed to quarantine, Curci said. They have been contacted.

If parents did not receive a notice, then their child is not among those who were potentially exposed, Curci said.

“Combining the three cases presented to us in consecutive days, the high number of individuals needed to quarantine and the quickly rising numbers in our region with regard to covid-19, we believed it best to revert the high school to remote instruction as a mitigation strategy,” he said.

“While the cases we are seeing appear to be due to community spread, we want to ensure that spread does not occur within our schools as we seek to keep our students and staff as safe as possible,” Curci said.