AUSTIN, Ind. (WDRB) -- Scott County School District 1 is moving online, just six days into classes. The school district announced Tuesday all classes would be virtual until Aug. 23.
"I was honestly worried, because this is my senior year, and you don't get to enjoy it that well when you're on virtual," said Austin High School student Connor Nease. "No one wants to sit at home by themselves and just be on a computer."
The schools have been hit hard by COVID quarantines.
It's impacting team sports like Austin High School's cross country team.
"We worked our butts off all summer, and then now half our team is gone in quarantine," said junior Brandon Rice.
But with over 300 students currently in quarantine, the smaller school district had to make a tough call.
"To give you an idea, we have a little over 300 kids in our middle school and 130 are in quarantine," said Superintendent Trevor Jones. "We have a lot more kids in quarantine than we actually have that have tested positive."
Jones said 11 students tested positive Monday with at least five more on Tuesday.
"At no point last year did we have that many students that were positive," he said. "So in speaking with the county health department today, it's nothing that we've done wrong. It's just this variant is very contagious."
The health department said Scott County is 40% vaccinated.
"If you're vaccinated, you don't have to quarantine," said Scott County Health Administrator Michelle Matern. "So especially when you have kids in an atmosphere where they could be vaccinated, maybe we wouldn't see such high number of people being quarantined, because they're fully vaccinated."
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