Thursday morning marks the end of the quarantine of more than 2,300 Wasatch High Students. The Wasatch School District released a video Wednesday evening to advise students and parents and to address other questions.
The Wasatch High School quarantine was meant to give students and staff 14-days to isolate from the last possible exposure of a known case. In the video, Wasatch School District Superintendent Paul Sweat says that the end of the quarantine does not signify students go back to life as normal.
“Follow the same guidelines as everyone else, and I'm going to review those guidelines for you,” Sweat said. “Avoid nonessential travel, stay at home as much as possible. When you do go out, do not congregate in large groups. The directive is still to be in groups of 10 or less, so big gatherings of high school students celebrating the quarantine being over would not be appropriate. Even when you do gather with other people in very small groups, you should maintain that 6 to 10 feet of spacing between you and others at all times when you're in public. Try to shop at times when there are fewer people about. Minimalize in person social contact, especially indoors. The more that you still try and self-isolate the better off you will be. “
Earlier this week Utah’s Governor Gary Herbert announced an extension of statewide school closures through Friday May 1st. The Wasatch School District will continue for the next five weeks in the same fashion as the past week and a half. Sweat says all spring activities planned between now and May 1st are suspended.
“So, spring sports, junior prom, all other activities that fall in that timeframe will either be postponed or cancelled,” Sweat continued. “We won't go into each of those right now, we’ll let our high school administration work through those things with you. But there will be no school activities between now and at least May 1st. I think it's prudent to realize that this closure could go longer than that.”
Wasatch School District’s spring break is scheduled for Monday April 6 through Friday the 10th. The break will continue as scheduled meaning no online classes during the week.
“We certainly would expect our families and students to continue to follow the guidelines set forth by the County Health Department, but there will be no school during spring break,” Sweat explained. “We’ll give our teachers and our students the break that we planned on, let you concentrate on other things that week.”
Sweat said they’ve heard a lot of positive feedback with how the closure has gone so far. The district intends to send a survey to parents soon to gather more feedback on how remote learning is progressing.
“Our teachers have done a fantastic job,” Sweat said. “Our students have done a fantastic job stepping up to meet the expectations of the teachers. The fact that we've already been delivering many educational activities through a canvas page and through our devices that we have here in the district, we were well prepared for this. We believe it's going very well.”
Sweat says while they want learning to continue, they also do not want families to be overwhelmed by the schoolwork. Sweat noted that those with questions or issues can contact their principal or the district directly.
The full video can be viewed here.
