ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Timber Creek High School is joining the list of Orange County schools moving to virtual learning for two weeks after reporting 14 cases of COVID-19, school officials said Wednesday.
The entire school will pivot to LaunchEd@Home, beginning Thursday. Online learning will last through Nov. 5.
“Most of the positive cases have been traced back to events in the community that are now impacting our school,” Principal Kelly Paduano said in an email to staff members and parents.
In consultation with @DohOrange, Timber Creek HS will pivot to LaunchED@Home until 11/5. This is due to 14 positive COVID-19 cases, and the resulting 200+ quarantine letters the FDOH is issuing. Most of the cases have been traced back to events in the community.
— ocpsnews (@OCPSnews) October 21, 2020
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Paduano said the Florida Department of Health told her that it will issue more than 200 quarantine letters to those who have been exposed.
She said the campus will be cleaned and disinfected.
Timber Creek is the seventh Central Florida school in two months to switch to online learning due to cases of COVID-19.
Harmony Middle School in Osceola County was the first, closing just one week into the academic calendar.
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Brevard County shut down Golfview Elementary and Enterprise Elementary last month because of COVID-19 cases. Both are now open but just last week the district had to close a third school, Eau Gallie High.
The Orange County school district was forced to close Olympia High School and West Orange High School for two weeks each back in September. Timber Creek High makes the third OCPS school to close because of COVID-19 cases.
FDOH will offer free coronavirus testing for students and staff members, but details have not been released yet.
The school district said there will be no athletic events, extracurricular or co-curricular activities with the exception of varsity football.
“All football players, coaches and trainers tested negative during their last round of testing and have since remained in their learning cohort,” a district spokeswoman said.
Timber Creek will not be serving meals during its two-week closure, but breakfast and lunch will still be available for students at any other school.
Distribution times are as follows:
• Elementary and K-8 schools (3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.)
• Middle schools (4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.)
• High schools (2:50 p.m. to 4:20 p.m.)
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Cox Media Group
