RUSSIA, Shelby County — Russia Local School has suspended in-person learning and extracurricular activities for two weeks amid coronavirus concerns in that community.
“Today Russia Local School had a large percentage of our 7-12 students out of school due to illness or quarantined due to contact with someone who was ill with symptoms similar to COVID 19,” said Superintendent Steve Rose. “Due to the excessive number of student absences and after consulting with the Shelby County Health Department, the Russia Board of Education and Administration have decided to transition all 7-12 students to remote learning for two weeks to help reduce the spread of the virus within the school.”
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Students in Kindergarten through 6th grade will continue in-person learning, since they have had a substantially lower absentee rate, Rose said.
“We know that these students will not be as successful in an online environment,” Rose said.
The district intends to return all students to in-person learning on Sept. 15.
“It is vitally important that if any member of the family is not feeling well, please keep all members of the family home,” he said. “In students, many of the symptoms reported start out as extremely mild and can easily be confused with allergies or the stomach flu.”
Rose also told News Center 7 that he knows that there are a lot of rumors going around the community about masks. He said the district bought masks for every student in the district and has been following Gov. DeWine’s orders.
In addition to the transition to remote learning, Russia Local School will also postpone extracurricular activities, with a hope to resume all sports beginning Sept. 15.
Rose said the district has only seen one positive case, however the concern of community spread is why the district made the decision to move junior high and high school classes online.
“The spread that we have seen recently came from outside of the school,” Rose said. The superintendent said the spread came from something outside the school and in the community and that adults are getting sick with potential exposure to students.