Idaho school districts vary widely in COVID-19 transparency

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Police: Wilkes-Barre man possessed handgun with altered serial number

WILKES-BARRE &mdash; Coughlin High School and its sister building Mackin went to full remote learning Tuesday after an employee reported testing positive for COVID-19, but will resume in-person learning today, Wilkes-Barre Area Superintendent Brian Costello confirmed.
				&ldquo;This morning, at approximately 7:50 a.m. the District was informed that an employee received a positive result for a COVID-19 test,&rdquo; Costello wrote in an update Tuesday afternoon. &ldquo;Due to the timing of the information and out of an abundance of caution the district closed both Coughlin and Mackin.&rdquo;
				The district contacted the state Rapid Response Center, established to coordinate school efforts with the Department of Health, Department of Education and Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. The district worked with the state to do contract tracing of the person who tested positive, to see who &mdash; if anyone &mdash; had been in close proximity of the employee long enough to potentially contract the virus.
				&ldquo;Although the employee was not in the building this week, we are following our School District Health and Safety Plan and guidance from the Department of Education as well as utilizing Ameristar Facility Solutions with our internal team to provide additional cleaning and sanitizing for both Mackin and Coughlin high schools,&rdquo; the update statement said. Ameristar is a third party contractor hired by the district to assist in cleaning and disinfection protocols.
				While the one-day closure impacted two buildings, it&rsquo;s technically one school. When the district closed the older section of Coughlin due to safety concerns, it split the students,with two grades attending classes in the newer annex of the Coughlin building and two grades attending classes in the old Mackin Elementary building, which had been closed but was renovated for the new use.
				Classroom size has been small this year because the district gave families three choices: Full remote asynchronous learning through a third party cyber company, full synchronous remote in which students at home participate via computer with classes being held live in the schools, and full in-school learning. The majority of students opted for remote-only learning, making class sizes in some cases as small as four or five students in school at any given time.

Coughlin, Mackin will resume in-person learning Wednesday