Wasatch High School is temporarily switching to an online learning format from Monday, October 12 through Friday, October 23, 2020. The school is planning to return to in-person learning on Monday, October 26. Extracurricular activities will continue as planned.
As stated on the Wasatch County School District Facebook page, “Our in-school mitigation efforts have proven to be effective. However, the recent increase in community COVID cases has had a direct impact on our high school students and staff.”
The Wasatch County Health Department confirmed there has been an increase in recent community spread. The Wasatch County 7-day average, as of Tuesday, was at 10.7 new cases a day, with the majority of those attributed to community spread, according to Trudy Brereton at the Health Department. “I think our community’s doing a pretty good job, but sometimes as time goes on, we get a little fatigued,” she said. “We’re not through this yet, and our spike in cases kind of reminds us of that.”
“The teachers will still be in the building, which works because they will be able to stay within their classrooms or individual spaces,” said Kirsta Albert at the District office. “So, they’ll be able to completely distance from each other.”
It will be different from what happened at the end of last year. For the first two days, until the end of the 1st Term, teachers will be accessible to students during their regular class times and for 30 minutes before and after school. When the new term begins on October 20, teachers will begin each class period with a Zoom call at the regular class time.
Fall break was previously scheduled for October 14-16, and teachers will be doing professional development days on October 14 and October 19. The teachers requested an additional development day to regroup.
“The teachers learned so much during the shutdown last Spring, that we are confident they will be taking the tools that they added to their arsenal into this closure,” said Albert.
According to the District website, “No other District schools are approaching the threshold for closing.”
The Wasatch School District website can be found at https://www.wasatch.edu.
