Classes at Leechburg Area Junior/Senior High School to be taught online Thursday, Friday due to covid

Classes at Leechburg Area Junior/Senior High School will be taught online Thursday and Friday after several cases of covid-19 were reported.

However, elementary school students will continue to be taught in school, as will students attending Lenape Technical School.

School buses will follow their normal schedule.

Classes for grades six through 12 will return to the classroom on Tuesday, since Monday was a previously scheduled in-service day for teachers.

All sports and other extracurricular activities are canceled for Thursday and Friday, including those related to the musical. Extracurriculars can resume Saturday.

Superintendent Tiffany Nix released a statement to parents Wednesday evening, saying three secondary students and an elementary teacher tested positive for the coronavirus. Three displayed symptoms. All four were last at school Tuesday, March 9.

At a school board meeting Wednesday night, Nix said all of the cases were contracted outside of schools. She said she was “shocked” because the district had managed to avoid temporary closures up to this point, even when community transmission was much higher.

“This is our first time going through this, and I’m crossing my fingers it’s the last,” Nix said.

Anyone who should get contact tracing was to be notified by a district administrator Wednesday night. Those determined to have been in close contact with someone with covid-19 is to self-quarantine for 10 days.

Nix urged parents to have their child tested if their child shows any symptoms before Friday and immediately report it to the school. She said none of those infected caught the coronavirus at school.