Updated post — Tuesday, April 20 | 4:45 p.m.
On Tuesday, the City and Borough of Juneau announced two additional positive COVID-19 cases associated with Thunder Mountain High School. The school will continue with distance learning through the end of the week.
Original post — Monday, April 19 | 1:50 p.m.
Thunder Mountain High School in Juneau shifted all classes to distance learning Monday and Tuesday after at least three people who either work at or attend the school tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend.
Juneau School District Superintendent Bridget Weiss said Monday that Juneau Public Health has completed contact tracing for those cases, but some test results are still pending.
“So, due to those pending test results we decided that it would be in everybody’s best interest just out of an abundance of caution to do one more day of distance delivery,” she said.
The school would not reveal whether the positive cases were in students or staff members due to health privacy laws, but the wrestling team and boys soccer team are being quarantined due to a close contact.
Weiss says members of those teams will be tested for the virus on Friday.
“You can’t always test right away because you have to have enough time for it to start showing up,” she said. “So that’s why these quarantine days are super important, so we don’t have kids mixing while we’re waiting until we can test.”
If the pending tests come back negative, the school plans to resume in person classes on Thursday. Wednesday is a virtual learning day for all students.
In an email to parents on Sunday, the district said students who are not contacted about exposure don’t need to quarantine or be tested at this time.
All individuals with active cases of COVID-19 are in isolation and the school is being disinfected.
Students started in-person attendance three days a week on Jan. 12 after winter break. They expanded that to four days a week last week.
This story has been updated with comments from the school district superintendent. Additionally, the photo caption in this story has been updated.
