Tri-City Sun

Students in the Western School District will move to fully remote learning as cases of COVID-19 have spiked in the area, according to MLive.

Students at Western's middle and high schools were sent home on Oct. 22 at 10 a.m. due to an influx in positive coronavirus tests. And later that day, an elementary school student connected with the incidents at the middle and high schools, as well as several other elementary school students, tested positive, and the move was made for all students to learn virtually until Nov. 5, Superintendent Mike Smajda told MLive.

The Jackson County Health Department is working through contact tracing, and the individuals who were exposed to COVID-19 will be notified, Smajda said in a letter to district families.

“We’re going to exercise extreme caution, and we’re just going to go virtual for two weeks,” Smajda said, according to MLive. “Hopefully everybody’s healthy and we can move on Nov. 5.”

Smajda said so far, no high school students or teaching staff have tested positive for the coronavirus, but an employee in the high school's front office did. He said front office staff is needed for the school to be run in person, so that's why the high school was moved to remote learning, according to MLive.

He said the middle school had several positive tests, and that the school occasionally shares teachers with the high school.

“I guess there is an upside, and the upside is: We’ve been preparing, we’ve been doing virtual lessons with kids who are present and not present in school,” Smajda said, according to MLive. “All of our kids should be very familiar with our learning management systems. We’re hoping that this is seamless.”

Sports will still be played for those teams willing to play against Western teams. A junior varsity football game that was scheduled for Oct. 22 was canceled because the other team did not want to participate.