2 staff members at Kiski Area High School test positive for covid-19

Two staff members at Kiski Area High School have tested positive for covid-19, according to a letter sent to district families Monday.

The Department of Health has been contacted and quarantine and isolation procedures are in place.

The high school will remain open, the letter from Superintendent Tim Scott said.

“The Department of Health has indicated that due to the adherence to health and safety recommendations (masks, physical distancing, one-way walking patterns, etc.), there is a very small chance of school transmission,” he wrote.

Individuals who must quarantine will be contacted by the health department. The district did not identify the infected staffers.

The latest cases follow a similar announcement from the district last week, when two infections were identified at Kiski Area Upper Elementary School and one at North Primary. Buildings also remained open to students after those cases, with the health department and district confident that transmission was unlikely on school grounds.

The district is operating under a hybrid schooling model, in which students attend class two days a week and work remotely three days a week. Students also may opt to learn fully online.

That may change soon, however, as district officials last week began discussing a third learning option that would allow in-person instruction for four days a week. That option would take effect Nov. 2.

Since the beginning of the school year, several schools around the region have reported infections or temporarily closed buildings after students and staff were exposed to covid-19 — though transmission in classrooms have been relatively low, experts say. State health officials say Pennsylvania is experiencing a “fall resurgence” of the virus.