The North Powder School District recently received results from state-mandated lead tests. Results indicate that all of the school district’s 51 drinking water sites easily meet EPA standards. (Observer file photo)

NORTH POWDER — An outbreak of COVID-19 has forced the North Powder School District to shut down in-person instruction and provide only online instruction.

The changes are for Wednesday, Jan. 19 and Thursday, Jan 20. The North Powder School District has a four-day school week.

“This is what is best for the health and safety of everyone,” said North Power School District Superintendent Lance Dixon.

The move to online instruction, formally known as Comprehensive Distance Learning, was made after 11 students tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week. The number of students who were exposed via close contact is now being determined, but Dixon said the there are many. He said that doing contract tracing was extremely difficult because there have been so many close contacts.

“It was becoming an organizational nightmare,” he said.

School districts have the option of operating a test-to-stay program, where students who are exposed to someone with COVID-19 can stay in school if they test negative and have no symptoms of the disease and then test negative again five to seven days later.

Dixon said the test-to-stay program was not an option for the North Powder School District because it does not have enough COVID test kits under the current circumstances.

The good news for the school district is that plans are in place for students to be back on campus Jan. 24. Dixon said by that time North Powder will have been away from each other in school for 10 days, more than the state’s required quarantine time after a close contact or a positive test. The span was lengthened by the fact there was no school on Jan. 17 due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

“Thank God (Jan. 17) was a holiday,” he said.

No online instruction was given Jan. 18 to allow teachers time to prepare to provide Comprehensive Distance Learning. Dixon said teachers are experienced with CDL and the system is in place after providing online instruction for a portion of the 2020-21 school year.

“It is easy for teachers to start CDL again if they have a day to prepare,” he said.

The superintendent said he thinks shutting down in-person instruction this week will pay dividends over the long term because it will allow the school district to be in a better position to control the COVID-19 outbreak when in-person instruction begins again on Jan. 24.

“It is the best solution and will keep students out of school for the shortest time possible,” Dixon said.