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Oregon’s second-largest high school is temporarily suspending in-person classes due to community spread of COVID-19 requiring large numbers of students to be quarantined at home, school officials said in a Wednesday night ad.
Reynolds High School will not have classes for the rest of the week and will return to distance education from September 20 to 24, according to an announcement on the school’s website.
Students will miss at least seven days of in-person learning, with classes on the Troutdale campus scheduled to resume on September 27.
The school enrolled more than 2,600 students in the past school year and serves one of the most diverse communities in the state, encompassing parts of East Portland, Gresham, Fairview, Wood Village and Troutdale . The shutdown is by far the largest in Oregon and comes just weeks after districts began welcoming students for a new school year amid the ongoing pandemic.
Reynolds officials said the number of students or staff testing positive for COVID-19 is low, but “these cases have necessitated the quarantine of large numbers of students due to exposure possible in the last few days “. The district currently requires students to self-quarantine for exposure to COVID-19, regardless of their vaccination status.
“As more and more students are forced to self-quarantine and learn at home while other students learn in the classroom, teachers are not able to teach both in environments that are free of charge. person and virtual, ”the ad says, explaining why the district has chosen to move entirely to online learning.
It is not known how many cases authorities have identified at Reynolds High School and how many students or staff have been asked to self-quarantine. The district’s online dashboard is outdated, showing no high school-related cases or quarantines, and three cases and 136 people quarantined until September 6.
The school asks families to voluntarily provide vaccination status to their students while they wait. Fully vaccinated students may not be required to self-quarantine after exposure to COVID-19 in the future, according to the announcement.
Reinforced seating charts for classrooms and buses will also be put in place for more accurate contact tracing, and spectators will not be allowed to attend sporting events until further notice, according to the announcement.
Gladstone Elementary School in Clackamas County will also be temporarily closed for the next week and a half, officials told parents on Wednesday. Other schools, including Duniway Elementary School in Portland and Hallinan Elementary School in Lake Oswego, have seen significant pieces of their students quarantined as a result of COVID-19 exposures on school buses.
– Jaimie Ding
[email protected]; 503-221-4395; @j_dingdingding
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