A pre-K classroom at Lopez Riggens Elementary School in Los Fresnos is in quarantine after one student tested positive for COVID-19 or the delta variant, according to district officials.
Other pre-K classrooms in the Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District have also been asked to quarantine, officials said.
The pre-K class is made up of 4-year-olds.
The class of about 15 students at Lopez Riggins was asked to quarantine last week on Friday, Aug. 20, and will remain at home until at least Aug. 30 or Sept. 1 depending on the results of symptoms for the virus.
Valarie Londrie, executive director for academics for the LFCISD, said out of an abundance of caution — because it was the first week of school and the young students are still learning about personal space and personal responsibility — the district decided to have them quarantine.
“We just did not feel confident that we could narrow it down and truly say only these students had met the definition of close contact, so that is why an entire classroom (was asked to quarantine),” Londrie said. “It was still just one positive case, but it resulted in possibly 15 to 20 quarantined students because of the nature of the classroom.”
“When students are placed in quarantine, we follow CDC guidelines,” she said.
Classes in Los Fresnos started Aug. 16.
Londrie said remote conferencing is being made available to quarantined students at the elementary level. Remote conferencing will be available district wide next week to students who might also be asked to quarantine.
The district continues to recommend that facial masks be worn by students, faculty and staff, and that the district continues to practice social distancing. In addition, the district is doing contact tracing and is notifying parents if a student has tested positive for the virus.
“We can’t control what happens outside,” Londrie said, “but when it comes into the school or when the parent identifies it as such as, ‘Hey, it’s a positive case,’ then we are trying to watch and see if there is a spread student-to-student or is it coming in. And we are stopping that spread by quarantining students and making sure we are taking the safest approach possible to keep everyone safe.”
