Two students have tested positive for COVID-19 at Montana City School, according to Superintendent Tony Kloker.
The situation changed rapidly from Tuesday morning, when it was reported that one person associated with a seventh grade class had tested positive.
One student is a seventh grader, in the class where the one person with an association had initially tested positive.
The second student is a first grader, said Kloker.
Both classes have switched to remote instruction for 14 days, beginning from when the two students were last at the school, said Kloker.
It’s up to the Jefferson County Public Health Department to order people into quarantine and isolation, said Kloker.
Those who test positive are put into isolation, while close contacts may be placed in quarantine.
The county is in the process of contact tracing, said Kloker.
The school described Tuesday morning how close contact notifications would proceed.
“If an individual parent does not receive communication from the health department or our school nurse it means they have not been identified as a close contact. Some communication will be a general notification like the one on Oct. 11, some communication will be specific to a group of parents and some communication, if their child has been identified as a close contact, will be direct individual communication from our school nurse,” said K-2/K-6 Principal Daryl Mikesell in an email to the Monitor.
Kloker said the Board of Trustees also plans to discuss how this information is distributed to parents at its meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 14, as a vague notice went out on Sunday to parents about the individual who tested positive and was associated with “a specific group” within the school.
The goal is to keep the students healthy and the school open, said Kloker.
