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Two northern Michigan high schools close following COVID cases

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Alpena High School and Traverse City High School both announced a move to remote learning following students testing positive for the coronavirus.

Traverse City High school will move to remote learning until at least Friday and Alpena High School has moved to distance learning indefinitely.

The Alpena district said in a release to parents that the quarantine on staff and students will be in place until October 30th, and “we anticipate a return to our hybrid learning plan on November 2nd. However, the situation can change at any time.”

Alpena School officials said the move to remote learning is ultimately due to a staffing shortage - not just COVID cases.

Dr. John VanWogner is the Superintendent of Traverse City Area Schools. He said currently the health department is working to contact-trace and identify who may have been in contact with the individual. Once the trace is complete he said the school will assess if they have enough staff to return to in-person instruction.

“There’s a reality we’ve been facing for years of shortages of people to be guest teachers. With the realities of COVID, those people that have come to want to serve our students have not been able to be out in environments such as that so that further narrows our group.”

Brian Pearson is the Superintendent of Gaylord Community Schools. He said his district hired substitutes full time so they wouldn’t be competing with other districts.

“It’s a little more expensive because you’re making that commitment upfront that you’re going to pay that person whether you need them or not,” he said. “I’ll tell you we’ve needed them every day. In all likelihood we could use another three or four of those.”

Pearson said so far Gaylord Community Schools have not recorded a COVID case.

“Having a positive case is not a failure. Failure is not reacting appropriately,” he said. “I’m convinced we’re going to have that case but I’m telling you in August if I would have bet - we would have had it long before now.”

Earlier this week officials with the Michigan Education Association noted that the coronavirus has exacerbated funding and staffing problems that existed long before the pandemic.