Students in the North Powder School District will take classes online through April 22 because as many as 30 students were potentially exposed to COVID-19.

The school district announced on Wednesday, April 14 that students would return to distance learning on Thursday, April 15.

North Powder students, who have a four-day school week, will continue to take online classes next week, April 19-22.

They are slated to return to in-person classes on Monday, April 26. The district has about 280 students.

It all started on Monday, April 12, when a student, who also plays sports, tested positive for the virus, Superintendent Lance Dixon said.

After sending the student home, the school began to conduct contact tracing.

“Unfortunately with somebody involved with sports that exposed teammates, and Tuesday, when we were contact tracing, and early Wednesday we got a couple of phone calls saying they had taken their child because they weren’t feeling well, got tested and tested positive,” Dixon said.

With four students testing positive, district officials determined that 30 students had been exposed to someone who tested positive, leading to the quarantine. Dixon said district officials consulted with Union County health officials in making the decision.

“We decided for the safety and health of the district, rather than chasing our tail and dealing with this for weeks, it was in the best interest of the safety and well being of our students to cancel school,” Dixon said.

The district also canceled athletic contests for the next two weeks.

During the quarantine, elementary students will take online classes in the morning, with the upper grades having classes in the afternoon.

“So each one will be doing a half day, with the intent of being back in school with everybody on the 26th,” Dixon said.

During the closure, workers will be conducting a deep-cleaning of the school, he said.

Dixon said he understands that the process can be frustrating for students and parents, but that safety is the overriding factor.

“It’s important to be patient and it’s important to understand we will get back to normal,” Dixon said. “I think the problem we have today is people have that fear that a year ago we said we were going to shut school down for a week or so, and they were shut down for months. The reality is that by shutting down and not being here next week, we get everyone in the district through the quarantine period so we can all come back to school safely.”

The district sent a letter to parents Wednesday, April 14, urging them to contact the district if they have questions.

Parents can either call the North Powder School district at 541-898-2244 or go to its website: https://www.npowder.k12.or.us/.