Dayville middle and high school students have transitioned to distance learning after a positive case was confirmed at the school.

The transition to distance learning began Monday, April 26, and will last at least through May 6. The school plans to resume in-person classes on May 10.

Dayville elementary and preschool students will attend normally with in-person lessons.

Superintendent Kathryn Hedrick said the COVID-19 school metrics — which are different than the county metrics — went into extreme risk, which requires the school to close unless they offer on-site testing for COVID-19 with a parent’s permission and notice. This was one reason for the closure, she said.

“That becomes kind of problematic for kids so we decided to wait it out,” Hedrick said. “But for our littler kids, we would be prepared to do that with parent permission and notice.”

Hedrick said they also have a number of interdistrict middle and high school transfer students that interact with Grant Union students and John Day kids, which presents a possibility for exposure to COVID-19. Hedrick added that the school increasingly had kids that were in quarantine or were self-quaranting.

“Late today (April 19), we learned that Dayville School had one confirmed positive case,” Hedrick said. “Exposure would have dated from Friday, (April) 16, and would have required being in proximity for a cumulative 15 minutes. We believe we have contacted directly those people.”

Prairie City Superintendent Casey Hallgarth said Prairie City School will continue with onsite education. He said the school has five kids out right now to quarantine for close contact, but most of them returned on April 26. He said the school district continues to work with the Grant County Health Department and is following guidelines from the Oregon Department of Education.

“If we come to the conjecture that our kids aren’t safe to be in school, then we definitely go that route,” Hallgarth said. “Right now we don’t feel like that’s the case for our school district.”

Monument Superintendent Laura Thomas said they have not had any presumptive or confirmed cases of COVID-19 on campus since they had their short moment of distance learning in early January.

“As always, I would work closely with the Grant County Health Department to determine if there was a need to transition to distance learning, but at this point in time, I am thankful to not see any need for our district to transition to distance learning,” Thomas said.

Long Creek Office Manager Jennifer Garinger said they are still open for their hybrid schedule and that Long Creek does not have any positive cases in the town. She said their hybrid schedule consist of students being at school two days a week for half days and continuing the school work online.

“We’re still open because we still don’t have any active cases reported here in Long Creek,” Garinger said. “We’re being cautious, and we’re keeping a close watch on the number, ready to pivot at any time.”

Grant Union Junior/Senior High School and Humbolt Elementary transitioned to distance learning on April 19 but returned to school on April 26.