Vallejo High School shuts down in-person instruction for a week due to positive COVID-19 tests
The Vallejo Unified School District opened up its high school campuses for in-person instruction on April 19, but one of its two high schools will be closed again for the remainder of this week. The district acknowledged Monday afternoon that there are two students with confirmed cases of COVID-19 at Vallejo High School.
Two students with confirmed cases of COVID-19 shut down Vallejo High School for the rest of the week barely two weeks after the Vallejo Unified School District opened up its high school campuses for in-person instruction.
The district said there was a confirmed case of a student with COVID-19, and a suspected case of another student, who has since been confirmed.
“On Friday the decision was made to return the entire campus to distance learning for at least a week,” said district spokesperson Stephen Nichols in an email. “The rationale for returning the whole school to distance learning, a first for us, is in large part due to the complexities surrounding any comprehensive high school.”
Nichols said Vallejo High students who are on campus are typically exposed to other students and staff in six different class periods.
“In short, the scale of potential exposures is far greater due to the fact that more students and staff come into contact with each other, even while observing social distancing and other measures designed to stop the spread,” he said.
The initial student with a confirmed case is not an athlete but the school is shutting down athletics for the whole week, Stephens added.
“However, this affects all sports at VHS, accordingly,” Nichols said. “With many of our staff taking measures to self isolate at home, it significantly impacts our site’s ability to provide the supervision required to keep athletic practices and competitions safe.”
The postponement of sports at Vallejo High comes at a disappointing time for athletes as May was the busiest month of the school year after a long delay due to COVID-19 restrictions. VCUSD made a controversial decision to delay prep sports conditioning and practice until March while all other schools in Solano County were starting conditioning months earlier. That delay resulted in very few scheduled events since other schools had already set their schedules.
Vallejo High’s sports schedule this week included nine varsity events. One of those programs affected was the boys basketball team, which got off to a 2-0 start last week.
“My reaction is that whatever guidelines they want us to follow to ensure the safety of everyone is the right decision for me,” said boys basketball head coach Andrew Johansen. “I’m happy to oblige. We definitely want to compete, but we want to do so safely.”
Nichols said there was a positive COVID-19 case involving a Jesse Bethel athlete a few weeks ago.
“We routinely test all of our athletes as a matter of protocol,” he said. “In that case our testing showed one student was positive with COVID-19, but that student was not an on campus/hybrid instruction student. Rather, they were permanently participating in our distance learning program for this semester. While we took the appropriate steps ensuring safety for that sports team, we didn’t need to return all of Bethel to distance learning.”
Nichols said during the last routine screening for athletes last Thursday, all of the Vallejo High athletes at that school tested negative for COVID-19.
“We’re taking the chance to deep clean the VHS facilities, and we told our families that we will notify them on or before Friday to let them know if we are able to resume on-campus instruction next week, or if we need to extend it,” he added.