Outbreaks shut down in-person learning at 5 schools

Five schools in the Douglas County School District have or will shut down in-person learning after a string of COVID-19 outbreaks.

Mountain Vista High School in Highlands Ranch closed Wednesday, following more than five outbreaks, spokesperson Paula Hans said. Colorado’s Depar tment of Public Health and Environment defines an outbreak as two or more cases witha two-week period that suggest the virus has spread within a single facility.

Three other schools — Castle View High School in Castle Rock, Rocky Heights Middle School in Highlands Ranch and Sierra Middle School in Parker — closed Friday. Each had five outbreaks, Hans said.

The schools transitioned all students to remote learning for 14 days, after which they’re expected to return to full-time in-person learning.

Rock Canyon High School in Littleton will follow suit on Tuesday after the school saw more than five outbreaks, the district announced Friday. Inperson classes will continue Monday for those students not in quarantine.

Middle and high school students spent most of the year on a hybrid schedule, attending classes in-person about two days per week. On March 22, after the district’s spring break, Douglas County reopened secin ondar y institutions at full capacity.

One reason many schools are offering more in-person learning is because of data leaders say points to low rates of transmission within academic buildings. However, Jennifer Chase, an epidemiologist with Tri-county Health Depar tment, said she is confident the disease is spreading in schools based on the way the agency conducts contact tracing.

“That’s unfor tunate. Even if you have all the control measures in place, it’s never a perfect system,” she said, adding that “school-related” activities such as extracurricular spor ts and physical education classes are contributing to the spread.

A spike is not surprising given in-person learning ramped up following spring break, Chase said, and other districts within Tri-county’s jurisdiction are experiencing similar trends. When a school has five or more cohor ts experiencing outbreaks, health officials recommend they close, Chase said.

Hans said any time a COVID-19 case is reported in a school, cleaning crews do a “deep disinfection of the building.”

“That takes place whether a school has had to transition to remote learning or if it’s a school currently still hosting in-person classes,” she said. “Our goal is to have students in school as much as possible and we’ll continue to work with Tri-county Health and CDPHE to monitor the situation.”