Woodland Hills High School suspends in-person learning after rise in covid cases

Woodland Hills High School on Wednesday announced it is suspending in-person learning until April 19 because of a rise in covid-19 cases.

Other schools in the district will continue to operate on a hybrid model.

“Since we opened, we’ve had 14 cases so we felt for students and staff to be safe we’re going to shut it down, and our extracurricular activities, for the next ten days,” Superintendent James Harris told the Tribune-Review. “So, were going to go back from hybrid to a virtual instruction at the high school only.”

He said the administration wants to do all it can to stop the spread.

Cases have been found among students in several spring sports and extracurricular activities, Harris said, including the baseball, softball and tennis teams and the musical. But contact tracing seems to suggest transmission is happening away from school property, he said — students hitching a ride home with one another after school without masks, having sleepovers and otherwise hanging out outside school.

“When they leave — they’re high school kids — they’re going to socialize,” he said.

Students on March 29 had just returned to the classroom as part of a hybrid model. Before that, they had not been in the Churchill building for the 2020-21 school year.

Half of the students were attending class in person Monday and Tuesday, with the other half coming to class Thursday and Friday. Students engaged in synchronous online learning the remaining three days of the week.

About 20% of students had already opted to remain entirely online, Harris said.

The district had already hired more custodians for frequent cleaning and sanitizing in every building, Harris said. Wednesdays — when all students are learning remotely — were being used for deep cleaning.

When the students do return April 19, Harris said there will be renewed emphasis on encouraging students and parents to adhere to public health guidance.

“I know the cases are going up in Allegheny County…and we’re back in substantial (transmission) with a different strain,” Harris said, referring to Pennsylvania’s Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard, which watches covid transmission rates for each county. “I think people just need to be careful when they’re out of school. When the students leave, they have to use their best judgment.”