Heritage High School in Littleton, Colo., has closed until Sept. 14 after more than two dozen staff members and 100 students were forced to quarantine because of possible exposure to Covid-19.
The Denver Post reports that the district was made aware Tuesday and Wednesday of one student and one staff member who tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Those two cases sent a combined 127 people, including about a third of school staff, into quarantine this week, according to letters sent to Heritage High families.
“Because there are now a total of 27 staff members — about one third of the entire Heritage High School staff — who must quarantine for 14 days, we do not have enough staff in the school to provide adequate supervision and safety for our students,” principal Stacey Riendeau said in the letter.
Heritage High School will be closed through Sept. 11, and students and staff will participate in remote learning. The school is expected to reopen on Sept. 14, when the quarantined students and staff are allowed to return.
Heritage High School has been operating on a hybrid schedule, meaning students attended classes in person twice a week and remotely three days a week. Teachers in these cases are often at school in person five days a week.
Heritage joins a growing list of schools dealing with cases of COVID-19. Fort Lupton High School in Weld County also shut down and transitioned all 480 of its students to remote learning through Sept. 8 after two positive cases.
On Wednesday, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported three new outbreaks in schools.
