One Greencastle seventh-grade classroom goes online due to COVID-19 numbers

One Greencastle-Antrim Middle School seventh-grade classroom is virtual for 14 days effective Tuesday, Jan. 26, the school district's first change due to COVID-19 in 2021.

In addition, the COVID-19 numbers for the entire seventh-grade and a fourth-grade classroom are being monitored, according to a letter to families sent Monday morning by Dr. Lura Hanks, superintendent.

"Unfortunately, this weekend brought news of additional cases of COVID to our Greencastle community," Hanks wrote.

There have been four cases reported since the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend in the seventh-grade classroom that is going online.

Any additional seventh-grade cases will likely result in an online shift for that entire grade level, based on the district's health and safety plan.

More:Greencastle-Antrim schools start 2021 with COVID-19 adjustments

More:COVID cases concentrated in G-A eighth grade, instruction moves online

Students in kindergarten through eighth grade returned to their buildings on Jan. 11. They made it through two weeks of in-person learning before the one classroom had to go virtual.

Students went back to the high school for the first time since Nov. 9 when the second semester got underway on Jan. 19.

The district delayed reopening schools physically after Christmas vacation to avoid the 60 to 80 COVID-19 exposures reported at each building after the Thanksgiving holiday.

There have been about a dozen confirmed or probable cases since Tuesday, Jan. 19.