By Justin Scacco | Special to The Union
An additional eight positive cases of COVID-19 have been reported at Truckee High School, bringing the total number of confirmed active cases to 32.
Tahoe Truckee Unified School District sent a letter out to parents Monday evening, providing an update on the amount of new confirmed cases of COVID-19, which increased from 24 last Friday to 32 on Monday.
Truckee High is now seven cases away from triggering rules that would require the entire school to transition to distance learning. Currently, the metric used for school closures is based on if the total number of positive cases reaches 5% of the staff and student population within a 14-day period. If Truckee were to reach 39 active cases, all extracurricular activities would be temporarily suspended, and the school would only reopen after receiving clearance from Nevada County Public Health.
Grass Valley School District campuses will return to a distance learning instructional format Monday, district superintendent Andrew Withers confirmed.
The district began the academic year with distance learning in August, and had opened its campuses for hybrid instruction districtwide Nov. 2.
Withers announced the decision Wednesday night in an email addressed to district staff, parents, and other community members.
The message referenced a recent increase in COVID-19 cases in Nevada County as documented by the county Coronavirus Dashboard, as well as the Greater Sacramento region falling under the threshold of 15% ICU availability this week, triggering a regional stay-at-home order applicable to Nevada County.