MOLINE, Ill. — Moline High School officials announced Saturday afternoon that students will not be returning to the building for two weeks after a rise in COVID-19 cases.
In a news release, Principal Trista Sanders announced the temporary closure resulting from an increase in positive COVID-19 cases at the school. The district's superintendent, Dr. Rachel Savage, says the district has seen 19 positive cases in the district over the last two weeks, with the majority of cases seen at the high school.
Those cases were seen among students and staff. Through contact tracing, the district determined that about 100 students and staff members needed to quarantine.
"We determined that the trend was moving in a direction and rate that we felt was not acceptable," Dr. Savage says. "We know that in-person learning is preferred for our students and teachers and we want to make sure that the learning environment is safe."
The district is following a recommendation by the Rock Island County Health Department to close the building and switch to remote learning for a period of two weeks, until October 12th.
After staff return to the building to grab necessary supplies, the building will be closed for deep cleaning and sanitization.
On the sports side, in-season sports (cross country, girls swimming, girls tennis, and golf) will continue to have practice and competitions, while out-of-season sports will not weightlifting, open gyms, and contact days.