Fifth Lee County school shuts down in-person classes due to rising COVID cases
South Smiths Station Elementary School has stopped in-person classes due to what a letter on its Facebook page says is a “high rate” of COVID-19 exposures.
The school is conducting classes in a blended learning model Sept. 3-12, according to the announcement also on the Lee County Schools website.
Blended learning requires students to attend classes remotely while teachers and other staff continue to work in the building if they don’t have a current COVID-19 infection and aren’t quarantined because of close contact with an infected person.
This is the fifth out of the district’s 15 schools to close in-person classes during the first four weeks of the school year due to rising COVID data. Smiths Station High School (Aug. 25-Sept. 7), Beulah and Wacoochee elementary schools (Aug. 23-27) and West Smiths Station Elementary School (Aug. 31-Sept. 9) are the other ones.
Neither the announcement on the district’s website nor the one on the school’s Facebook page discloses the COVID data. District officials haven’t replied to the Ledger-Enquirer’s request for that information.
