20 more Utah schools will switch to e-learning following COVID-19 outbreaks – including 14 in a hard-hit district.

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Along with the new epidemics, he also temporarily closed most schools in all districts of the state.

“It has just been incredibly difficult,” Jen Atwood, member of the Jordan District Board of Directors, told the virtual meeting. “We are experiencing a COVID panic in our schools.”

She paused for a moment and added, “I think we’re at a tipping point.”

The council on Wednesday voted to transition nine middle and five high schools to online learning until Thanksgiving. None of the colleges have closed before.

But all five high schools – Riverton, Bingham, Herriman, Mountain Ridge and West Jordan – have already hit the 15-case threshold that the state’s health department says should trigger a two-week shift from teaching to distance. For Riverton High and Bingham High, this will be the third time.

The district has six traditional high schools. The sixth, Copper Hills High, is already ready for virtual learning after closing earlier this month. He has also crossed the threshold three times.

With these, the District of Jordan also sets a record for the most schools to close again after a previous outbreak.

But the Davis School District also temporarily closed four other schools on Wednesday – Davis High, Layton High, Woods Cross High and Shoreline Junior High – after it also reported outbreaks, even with new rapid tests online. Today, a total of seven Davis schools have gone online, including two more last week.

Two more in the Canyons School District, also closed: Jordan High and Indian Hills Middle. In total, six schools have gone virtual.

This causes 20 Utah schools to close just Wednesday. A total of 31 closed their doors this month. And, overall, at least 60 statewide have done so since classes began in August.

While the five district high schools in Jordan discussed at the meeting hit the 15 case mark – with the largest outbreak of 32 infections at Herriman High – some of the middle schools have been shut down preventively. Six of the nine had not yet reached the threshold, but were experiencing absenteeism and quarantine rates so high that the board determined it was too difficult to continue to conduct in-person classes. The district has a total of 12 colleges.

At Copper Mountain Middle, for example, 12 students have tested positive. But 211 – roughly 20% of the school – is in quarantine for coming into close contact with a case in the classroom. Another 100 do not show up to school regularly, possibly out of fear of spreading, Atwood said.

Likewise, in West Jordan Middle, which has 10 cases, around 30-40% of children are absent every day. West Hills Middle is also at 37% absenteeism with 13 cases.

There are so many educators and administrators, added board member Darrell Robinson, that staffing is an issue. “They are struggling to cover teachers who are absent,” he said, with replacements in short supply during the pandemic.

Board member Matthew Young added, “They’re too stretched out. I don’t think it’s sustainable.

Several of the decisions to close schools reflected this concern for staffing.

Only one school on the list of 15 the board was considering going online – Oquirrh Hills Middle – was allowed to continue face-to-face learning. There are nine cases there, and Young said, “Looks like they’ll keep going down.”

Elk Ridge Middle, which the council voted to shut down, had the most high school cases in the district with 22 infections, as well as the most students and staff quarantined with 279.

The Jordan School District board has generally preferred to keep schools open, believing that in-person instruction is best for students. In the past too, he has chosen not to close schools, or to close them only for a few days, despite epidemics. But cases are increasing in the district, county and state.

And Jordan now accounts for 14% of the 8,678 school cases across Utah.

“None of this is easy,” Atwood said. “We must act, however.

Each of the schools the board has voted to go online will have a slightly different timeline for when the transition begins. But it will all run until Thanksgiving, with an in-person reopening scheduled for November 30.

Here is an overview of the schedules and number of cases for affected schools in the Jordan district:

• Bingham High: 31 cases, 271 in quarantine

The school will run in-person classes, as usual, on Thursday and have a regularly scheduled virtual day on Friday. Students will then have a day off on Monday and start with online classes only on Tuesday.

• Herriman High: 32 cases, 205 in quarantine

Students will have a day off on Thursday and then start with online classes only on Friday.

• Mountain Ridge High: 25 cases, 235 in quarantine

Students will start Thursday with online classes only.

• Riverton High: 25 cases, 149 in quarantine

The school will run in-person classes, as usual, on Thursdays, and then start with online classes only on Fridays.

• West Jordan High: 17 cases, 70 in quarantine

The school will run in-person classes, as usual, on Thursdays, and then start with online classes only on Fridays.

• Copper Mountain Middle: 12 cases, 211 in quarantine