Hopkinton Schools Shift To Remote Learning After Positive Test

HOPKINTON, MA — Hopkinton Public Schools will hold classes remotely for the next two days and the district has closed schools for athletics and extracurricular activities after the district announced over the weekend that a student at Hopkinton High School has tested positive for the coronavirus.

School officials announced the change in in-person learning in a social media post Tuesday morning, three days after issuing a news release announcing the positive case. In the social media post, school officials said that schools were being closed only for extensive contact tracing.

Hopkinton Superintendent Carol Cavanaugh wrote in an email to Patch Tuesday that contact tracing will continue through Wednesday and that current plans call for the district to return to in-person hybrid instruction on Thursday.

According to the release, the student at Hopkinton High School last attended classes on Sept. 21 and attended only three classes that day, officials said. The district had reopened using a hybrid model of instruction this fall and, according to reports, had installed protective plexiglass on desks and was using QR codes to determine where students were seated when eating lunch in addition to other safety measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

After learning of the classrooms where the student attended class last week, the news release said that principal Evan Bishop worked with staff members to determine what other students may have come into close contact with the student. According to health officials, close contact is defined as any person who was within six feet of the person who tested positive.

Officials learned that in one of the three classes, there were only five students present – all wearing masks – who were engaged in lab work which required movement throughout the classroom. School officials determined that all of the students in the classroom likely came into close contact with the student who tested positive and have been notified by the health department.

School officials have also reached out to two teachers and one paraprofessional who likely came into close contact with the student, officials said in the news release.