Jeffersonville High moves to distance learning due to staff quarantines

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jeffersonville High School students will be learning from home for the rest of the week because 14 school employees have been exposed to COVID-19, Greater Clark County Schools Superintendent Mark Laughner said Monday.

Students will transition to eLearning starting Tuesday, and the district announced on social media that the situation will be evaluated "as the week progresses."

That evaluation will include the number of staff members in quarantine and any positive COVID-19 cases linked to Jeffersonville High, Laughner said.

"If we see a cluster of cases going on in any individual school, then we're going to be quick to get with the health department ... and look at shutting that school down for a week or two weeks because the last thing we want to see is a cluster of positive cases in any one school," he said.

The district expects 18 Jeffersonville High employees will be absent this week, 14 of them due to COVID-19 quarantines, Laughner said. Many of those quarantining are teachers, he said.

The district has had issues finding enough substitute teachers and staff to cover for absences throughout the 2020-21 school year so far, Laughner said, adding that paraeducators have also been difficult to find during the pandemic.

Substitutes who "used to come in all the time" are now "very concerned" about contracting COVID-19, he said.

"It really puts a stress on some of our schools when we have staff out," Laughner said.

Food service will continue as students transition to distance learning, and GCCS will provide transportation for students who attend classes at Prosser Career Education Center, according to the district's Facebook post.

GCCS resumed in-person instruction Monday after a week of eLearning, and the district's last day of classroom learning will be Nov. 20. The district's second quarter ends Dec. 4.