Deer Lakes closes middle school, East Union Intermediate after 5 test positive for covid

Five Deer Lakes School District employees and students have tested positive for covid-19 in the past week, the district reported Thursday.

Those infected include two staff members and one student at East Union Intermediate Center and two students at Deer Lakes Middle School, the district said.

Deer Lakes has recorded a total of 67 cases since the beginning of the school year.

District spokesman Shawn Annarelli said the positive tests will result in the closure of both school buildings for the rest of the week. To comply with the attestation order it submitted to the state, Deer Lakes is required to close any school building with at least two cases for three days while Allegheny County has a substantial transmission rate.

“Students at these schools will follow their remote instruction schedule,” Annarelli said.

The district has been exploring a possible return to fully in-person instruction.

“The implementation of any plan is dependent upon the level of local transmission; the percentage of students who would return to in-person learning; the ability for students and staff to physically distance as recommended by the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Allegheny County Health Department and Pennsylvania Department of Education); the ability of the school district to operate; and federal, state and local guidelines and restrictions,” he said.

In October, the district voted to return to full-time in-person learning. The initiative began on November 9 but shortly returned to a hybrid model a little over a week later. Deer Lakes went fully remote on November 23 because of rising covid-19 cases in Allegheny County. Full-time remote learning ended in December when the district returned to hybrid instruction.