Sedona-Oak Creek School District won’t be closing after four Sedona Red Rock High School students and one staff member reported positive cases of COVID-19 in the last month, but the two days after Thanksgiving break will be virtual for all staff and students there and at West Sedona School, preschool through 12th grade.

At the Governing Board meeting on Nov. 10, SOCSD Superintendent Dennis Dearden said the leadership team had been contemplating making the two days after the three-day Thanksgiving break — Monday, Nov. 30, and Tuesday, Dec. 1 — virtual-only to limit the spread of any COVID-19 cases that could have occurred during holiday gatherings. The team made that official at a meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 17.

“While we are looking forward to a much-deserved Thanksgiving break, we have carefully considered the potential impact planned gatherings and travel may have on our learning community,” SOCSD Assistant Superintendent Deana DeWitt wrote in a letter on Wednesday, Nov. 18. “The purpose for scheduling virtual learning on the two days following our traditional break is to enable students to attend their classes without physical proximity to others. This is a COVID mitigation effort to allow students and families additional time to monitor for any COVID-19 symptoms following Thanksgiving contacts and also allow time to determine if any family members or guests are having symptoms or have tested positive for coronavirus.”

DeWitt goes on to say that the buildings on campuses will be closed those two days and staff will be working remotely.

“Teachers will conduct ‘live’ Google Meets sessions as scheduled and post assignments and resources to Google Classrooms. It is important that learning continue as ‘normal’ as possible on those two days,” she wrote.

Students have all been assigned district laptops to work remotely when needed this year, and students who prefer to work virtually always have that option. Because of the recent COVID cases, however, many SRRHS students have been required to work virtually for at least two weeks while they quarantine.

The junior-senior high school announced the first positive COVID-19 case on Oct. 23, and that student quarantined immediately after. Anyone who was thought to be within close contact of that student was notified by the Yavapai County Community Health Services and required to quarantine. The department defines “close contact” as being within six feet of the infected person for 15 minutes or more.

Those students were eligible to return to campus on Nov. 6.

In a letter to pupils, parents and guardians emailed the afternoon of Nov. 12, DeWitt wrote that another student had reported a positive COVID-19 test.

In an email later that day, DeWitt said that the student got tested on Nov. 9, and test results were received on Nov. 12. However, the student attended classes while waiting for test results, and was last on campus the morning of Nov. 12. The student was asymptomatic and not on any school sports teams, DeWitt said.

When asked if there was a link between the students who returned to campus after quarantining and the infected student who took the COVID test on Nov. 9, DeWitt said there was “none that we are aware of.”

DeWitt also said that “steps to properly clean the facility” were taken on Nov. 10 and 12. There was no school on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

“There was targeted disinfecting of the one classroom the student was in today,” she wrote Nov. 12. “All other rooms the student was present in on [Nov.10] … were cleaned/disinfected on their normal cleaning schedules Tuesday afternoon/evening.”

The students that were asked to quarantine on Nov. 12 won’t be able to return to school until Wednesday, Dec. 2, due to Thanksgiving break and the two virtual days. DeWitt estimated there were about 10 students from this quarantine group.

Just days later, another letter was sent out via email to the SRRHS community informing them that a staff member there reported they received a positive COVID-19 test result on Saturday, Nov. 14.

“We recently became aware that a staff member in our school tested positive for COVID-19,” DeWitt wrote in the Nov. 15 letter. “While we are unable to identify the individual due to the confidential nature of the medical information, we can share that the staff member was last on campus on Tuesday, Nov. 10.”

That staff member and anyone who was thought to be in close contact with them will follow the same protocols of quarantining and working from home for two weeks, and will also be able to return to campus on Dec. 2.

On the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 19, the district sent another letter reporting a student had once again been infected.

While we are unable to identify the individual due to the confidential nature of the medical information, we can share that the student has not been on campus since Friday, November 13, 2020.”

The most recent case was announced Friday, Nov. 20, in a letter from Dearden.

“At least so far, it appears that the positive cases we have documented are likely from household spread, with an adult or other family member first testing positive,” Dearden wrote. “At least so far, there does not appear to be campus-based student to student spread.” 

It is possible that this student and others with positive tests could have been already quarantining as they waited for test results.

Despite the four COVID-19 cases, Dearden wrote in the Nov. 20 letter that the county health department has still “determined that our facilities are not required to be closed at this time.”

In both letters to SRRHS families sent last week, DeWitt included information for parents titled, “What This Means for You and Your Child,” which includes:

“Stay home and contact your health care provider if your child is sick. We encourage you to continue social distancing, washing your hands and monitoring symptoms. If at any time, you or your child begin to develop symptoms of COVID-19 [such as cough, shortness or breath, fever, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, or new loss of taste or smell], please keep your child home and call your health care provider for next steps.

“It is recommended that you call ahead to your health care provider before going to the physician’s office, clinic, urgent care or emergency room so they can be prepared for your arrival. They may also refer you to a testing clinic.”

“There is nothing more important to us than the safety and health of our students, our staff and their families,” DeWitt wrote in the Nov. 15 letter. “We truly appreciate your continued efforts to adhere to COVID-19 mitigation protocols. We all need to work together to ensure the health and safety of our learning community.”