Horace grade school will go virtual due to COVID-19

School officials say there are 21 active positive COVID-19 cases.

WEST FARGO, ND (KVRR) – Horace Elementary will go to virtual learning beginning Friday, January 21.

School officials say there are 21 active positive COVID-19 cases.

More than half of the cases are staff.

Virtual learning will begin on Friday and go through Tuesday, January 25.

Here’s the letter sent to parents:

The WFPS School Board adopted thresholds for when additional mitigation strategies should be implemented in a classroom, across a grade level, or for an entire school. One key set of thresholds is when 5% of a school’s combined staff and student population is currently identified as an active positive case. At Horace Elementary, that number is 18.   

As of today, there are 21 active positive cases at Horace Elementary. While 21 may not seem like a large number, more than half of these cases are amongst our staff. Between COVID and other leave reasons, we expect to have over 50% of our staff absent tomorrow, Friday, January 21. 

To ensure that we are able to provide a safe learning environment for all of our Horace Hornets, we will be moving our entire school to virtual learning starting tomorrow, Friday, January 21, and going through Tuesday, January 25. Students will be sent home with their devices and materials today. They should plan to join their teacher on Microsoft Teams at 9:30AM each day. Additional details for the rest of their day will be shared at that time. 

It is important to know that further mitigation strategies (including a continuation of schoolwide masking upon our return next Wednesday) may be necessary based on case data.