Staffer at Pleasant Ridge Elementary tests positive for COVID-19

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- An employee at Pleasant Ridge Elementary School has tested positive for COVID-19, sending students who came into close contact with them into quarantine for two weeks, Greater Clark County Schools confirmed Monday.

Dr. Eric Yazel, Clark County's public health officer, said an entire kindergarten class at Pleasant Ridge Elementary will need to quarantine for two weeks because of exposures to the infected school employee.

A GCCS spokesperson did not disclose the individual's position at the school.

Yazel believes the district's schools are taking appropriate measures to keep students and staff safe but that COVID-19 is prevalent in the community.

"Our process works, but this will be a familiar thing for a while as schools reopen," he said.

Monday marked the fourth day since GCCS classes opened for the start of the 2020-21 school year, one of the first districts in Indiana to resume in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Friday, the Clark County Health Department identified a COVID-19 case at Charlestown High School after a student there tested positive. A student at New Washington High School has also tested positive for COVID-19, Yazel said.

Jeffersonville High School began the 2020-21 school year with a week of distance learning after a teacher tested positive for COVID-19 and exposed at least four other educators.

Nearby Lanesville Community School Corporation also started the 2020-21 school year on Wednesday, and four students at Lanesville Junior-Senior High School have tested positive for COVID-19.

That has forced about 50 students and two teachers into quarantine, according to Steve Morris, the district's superintendent and high school principal. One teacher is in quarantine because one of the students who tested positive if a family member, he said.

The district held all classes virtually on Monday as a precaution. Schools there are expected to reopen Tuesday.

"It's very disappointing that it happened," Morris said. "I mean, no one planned to start school this way, even those that are in the situation that have had a positive test."

Morris said about 8% of the district's students enrolled in distance learning programs. More families, however, are choosing such options given the positive COVID-19 cases at Lanesville Junior-Senior High.

"Basically you're going to have to go back and shelter in place" to prevent COVID-19 cases from spreading in communities and schools, he said.

Dr. Andrew Morton, health officer for Harrison County, said the cases appeared to be unrelated and without "a single common denominator."

"However, given the contagious nature of this virus, one positive person can expose and infect many," Morton said in a statement. "The state is diligently working on the contact investigations."

Since most of the Lanesville Junior-Senior High exposures happened Thursday, he said it is too early to tell whether others have contracted COVID-19.

"Unfortunately the spread of this virus from one family member to another is not uncommon," Morton said.

"It will be important to determine those who were exposed and keep them in quarantine to reduce the likelihood of spread. ... We as the local health department are assisting the school in formulating a workable plan moving forward and there is no reason to believe that the school cannot open as planned."

Tiffany Collins, the mother of a student in the seventh grade at Lanesville Junior-Senior High, says her son will continue attending in-person classes when school resumes Tuesday.

"I think everything's going to be fine as long as you're following the rules" from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she said. "I really think just being patient, it's going to be well worth it."

Still, Collins worries about whether her son will be exposed to COVID-19 during the 2020-21 school year.

"I want him to go in person, but there is that concern," she said. "Is he going to be exposed to that? Is he going to get sick?"

Collins said her son was disappointed in the district's decision to transition to remote instruction on Monday but knew what to expect since schools moved to distance learning in the closing months of the 2019-20 school year as COVID-19 spread throughout the U.S.

She also worries that the district may be forced to continue intermittent closures as the 2020-21 school year continues amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It affects their learning," Collins said. "It puts them behind. It affects their social skills, their routines, all those things."