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UNION TWP. — Northwest Area School District is going to virtual-only learning for the High School through Jan. 21, “due to the rising number of positive cases within our community and high school,” Superintendent Joseph Long said in an announcement Friday.The Primary and Intermediate schools will continue in-person instruction.
“The Northwest Area administration with support of the Board of Education has decided that the High School will be virtual from Tuesday, January 18th through Friday, January January 21st,” the announcement said. “This is a proactive measure to help stop the spread within our community and school and to make an effort to keep our students and faculty safe. In Person instruction will continue on Monday, January 24th.”
Classes for high school students online will be synchronous and live, with all students following their regular daily schedules. Attendance will be taken.
The district maintains a COVID-19 dashboard on its website, and the most recent data for Jan. 3 through Jan 12 lists 5 positive cases in each of the Primary and Intermediate Centers, and 21 in the High School.
Luzerne County is in the midst of a surge of new cases that dwarfs any past records. The daily number of new cases has been above 600 for the last seven days, topping 900 twice.
The number of cases in the county among those age 0 to 18 years has soared, according to state data released every Thursday. This week there were 1,199 cases in the age group, compared to 724 the week before and 303 the week before that.
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish