Greenwood ISD: COVID closes high school for five days

Greenwood ISD Superintendent Ariel Elliott said his district’s high school campus will be closed for five days.

The superintendent said COVID-19 is forcing the education of the older students to go virtual.

“The main reason is we have a lot of close contact, and we want to make sure it doesn’t spread,” Elliott told the Reporter-Telegram.

He said there are 100 cases of close contact, and that includes teachers. Elliott said protecting teachers is a big reason for the closing of campuses.

On Sunday night, Elliott told the Reporter-Telegram that classes wouldn’t be held because of “late notifications of COVID-19 cases” and that the district would use the day to “deep clean our campuses and communicate with families that have had possible COVID-19 exposure over the weekend.”

This week, school officials also announced the high school’s volleyball team wouldn’t participate in the Class 4A playoffs after players on both its varsity and junior varsity teams had to quarantine following contact tracing related to COVID-19.

Elliott said the number of students and teachers is not a big list. He credited his nurses and health professionals for allowing the community to stay as safe as possible.