Delaware County district quarantines 228 students, closes middle and high schools

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP/WISH) — A Delaware County school district has sent 228 students home to quarantine and closed two schools in a bid to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in what appeared to be the largest isolating case among state schools amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Starting Wednesday, Delta Middle School and Delta High School will be closed through Aug. 24 and students will move to e-learning, Superintendent Reece Mann said in a message posted Tuesday on the Facebook page of Angela Campbell, the secretary of principals for the middle and high schools.

The district plans to have students return to the schools starting Aug. 25.

Delaware Community schools took action after a football player at Delta High School tested positive for the virus several days ago. The school district is aware of only that one case.

Superintendent Reece Mann says the district is aware of a few students who are in the testing process, are experiencing many of the COVID-19 symptoms, and may have direct connections to the positive case.

The five schools in the district, with 2,666 students and 176 full-time educators, returned to class Aug. 6 with a virtual option for students not able to attend in person.

Text of message:

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FROM MR MANN
This is Reece Mann, Superintendent of Delaware Community School Corporation. As educators, being able to have students back in our school buildings, in-person, has been an incredible blessing. Not surprisingly, it has also proven to be challenging. As you are aware, we have dealt with a few situations at our middle and high school that have resulted in asking quite a few students to quarantine at home. Fortunately, this has not been true at our elementary schools. Elementary student parents appear to be doing an incredible job of self-screening their children and keeping them home when they are exhibiting symptoms. With over 200 students being excluded from our secondary school buildings, beginning tomorrow, August 12th, Delta Middle School and Delta High School will temporarily cease meeting in person and move to eLearning. Again, Delta Middle and Delta High School students will temporarily NOT meet in-person beginning tomorrow, August 12. Middle and high school students will engage in eLearning through August 24th. Right now, it is our intention for these students to return to school, in-person, on Tuesday, August 25th. We are hopeful that secondary students, and their families, will use this time to get well and work hard to minimize exposure over the next 14 days. Doing so will allow us to be in a better position to successfully begin in-person instruction again on August 25th.

Moving forward, we will need the help of all DelCom parents in keeping your children at home if they have COVID-19 related symptoms. Again, elementary students will continue to meet in-person as planned but secondary students will stay home and attend remotely. Besides football at the high school, all athletic events and practices for Delta Middle School and Delta High School will continue but with additional safety measures in place that will go beyond the suggested guidelines from the IHSAA. If your child is currently being quarantined, he/she may not attend sporting events until after the date we provided you in an earlier message. Our Athletic Directors will be coordinating a meeting with all of our coaches tomorrow to discuss these additional measures so all practices tomorrow, August 12th are canceled. More than you know, I appreciate your support as we continue to implement strategies to ensure our student and staff safety.