WILLOUGHBY, Ohio — The Willougby-Eastlake School District has closed South High School due to multiple cases of COVID-19. The decision to close was made after consulting with the Lake County General Health District.
According to the school district, the school will be closed starting on Friday, October 30. Students will begin virtual learning.
In addition, because of a growing number of coronavirus-related staff absences due to quarantines, Willoughby Middle School will also be closed on Friday and all students will learn virtually by logging into Schoology and Google Meets. The district says it hopes to reopen Willoughby Middle School on Monday, November 2 for its brick and mortar students.
In a letter sent to parents, Willoughby-Eastlake City Schools Superintendent Steve Thompson says the cases of COVID-19 have made it extremely difficult to staff South High School due to staff absences. Many of the staff members are on quarantine and not allowed to be in the building.
The district says the safety of extracurricular activities is also being reviewed and information will be sent out to parents regarding various schedules.
"As we move forward during the next few weeks, all decisions will continue to be guided by one factor: safety. The safety of our staff, student safety and the safety of our community and we will not waiver from that as our priority," Thompson wrote.
A date for South High School to reopen has not been announced.
Earlier this month, the district decided to close all of its school buildings and suspend extracurricular activities after several students and teachers were exposed to COVID-19.
You can read the entire letter from Superintendent Steve Thompson below:
