Flowing Wells High School students will return to remote learning due to too many staffers being in COVID-19 quarantine.

Flowing Wells High School is returning to remote learning until after Thanksgiving break because the number of staff in coronavirus quarantine would cause disruption to the school’s mitigation protocols.

There are two positive, unrelated cases and a total of 10 staff quarantining at home for the next two weeks. Of those, seven staff are in quarantine in connection to one staff member testing positive for COVID-19. And there is another staff member who tested positive that is unrelated and one other staff member in quarantine in connection to that second case.

This video offers some pros and cons of online education, as many schools and universities have suspended in-person classes due to the spread of the coronavirus.

The employees are not classroom staff, but their absence won’t allow the school to do all the cleaning, security and supervision necessary to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

The school will close from Thursday, Nov. 12, to Monday, Nov. 30.

Flowing Wells’ hybrid plan has students coming on campus in four separate cohorts one day a week. While the switch back to remote may come with some challenges, both students and staff are accustomed to remote learning, says Superintendent David Baker.

While the district, like every local school district and many charter schools, has had a number of cases in schools, Baker says there is no known cases of classroom transmission. The high school had seven student cases recently on the volleyball team and two other student cases this week, but Baker says those are unrelated to these most recent staff cases.


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Contact reporter Danyelle Khmara at dkhmara@tucson.com or 573-4223. On Twitter: @DanyelleKhmara.