DOVER — With Delaware public schools experiencing the second-highest number of in-person COVID-19 cases this academic year, Capital School District announced Monday that it will return to remote learning ahead of winter break.
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DOVER — With Delaware public schools experiencing the second-highest number of in-person COVID-19 cases this academic year, Capital School District announced Monday that it will return to remote learning ahead of winter break.
On Sunday evening, the district initially announced via its social media platforms that classes in its secondary schools would be conducted virtually Monday.
Then, on Monday night, a post on Dover High School’s Facebook page said all CSD schools would shift to virtual learning Tuesday and Wednesday.
The district’s winter break begins Thursday and continues through Jan. 2.
The decision to conduct instruction remotely was made “out of an abundance of caution and due to staffing concerns,” the post read. The school district could not be reached for comment as of press time Monday.
Classes will follow their normal schedule, as they did when the school district went remote during the Firefly Music Festival in September, the post read.
Capital facilities will remain open to staff Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to the post, anyone with questions should contact their child’s teacher, principal or main office.
“We appreciate your understanding and flexibility as we keep the health and safety of our students and staff as our primary focus,” the post added.
As of Friday, Central Middle School has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the district — 11 were listed on CSD’s weekly data update.
Kent County Community School and North Elementary School were the only buildings with no cases of COVID-19 reported Friday.
For the district’s elementary schools, Booker T. Washington had the most with nine cases. William Henry Middle had nine, as well, and Dover High School had seven.
According to the Delaware Division of Public Health’s weekly report, also released Friday, there were 473 in-person contagious cases among students in K-12 public schools and 114 cases among staff from Dec. 4-10.
The only week to have more cases recorded was Oct. 2-8, when there were 483 students affected.
Masks have been required in public schools since the beginning of the academic year, per Gov. John Carney. The order was recently extended to Feb. 8, at which time Gov. Carney said the mandate will be reevaluated based on COVID-19 case rates and vaccination data.
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