North Elementary closed due to COVID-positive teacher

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WATERVLIET, Mich. -- North Elementary will be closed until at least Monday after a teacher tested positive for COVID-19.

Watervliet Public Schools Superintendent Ric Seager sent a letter to parents informing them of the case and that due to the abundance of close contacts to the teacher the entire school would be moving to E-learning temporarily.

Seager said the school would close for three days for three reasons — to give the Berrien County Health Department time to do contact tracing, allow for a deep cleaning of North Elementary, and make sure the school can get enough substitute teachers.

“It cannot be easy to be a teacher right now. Our district has teachers doing the in-person learning and they’re also doing the remote learning for our option B students,” said North Elementary parent Jennie Geisler.

Geisler also said she predicted a situation like this would occur and it’s the exact reason she chose the E-learning option for her child.

“Just so that we didn’t have to go through the change of being in-person and then being at home overnight like we did in the spring,” said Geisler.

But ultimately saying the district did all it could to prevent an outbreak.

“It’s a learn-as-you-go kind of thing and we’re not going to know if in-person works until we get there and we try it,” said Geisler.

If all goes according to plan and North Elementary can reopen Monday, it will only have meant three days of closure for the school.

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