Council Rock North School Closure Extended Through Wednesday

NEWTOWN, PA — Council Rock High School North will remained closed through Wednesday after five more people tested positive for coronavirus, the school district announced.

The high school has remained close since Monday, when the district reported five students had tested positive for COVID-19 since re-opening Sept. 29. Since then, five more positive cases have been reported among people physically present in the school building.

"Particularly troubling is that seven of these ten individuals are closely associated with one another through their class schedules and seating assignments," Superintendent Fraser wrote in an email to the Council Rock North community. "It is imperative that we allow thorough contact tracing to occur so that we may better understand how transmission has occurred and whether/how the school environment has played a role in these transmissions."

North students will continue to participate in school virtually until Thursday, when school and school activities are scheduled to reopen.

In addition to the ten positive cases last week, an all-virtual CRN student has also tested positive, though that case is not included on the district's COVID-19 reporting dashboard.

Fraser's decision to shut down the school last week went against the recommendation of Bucks County Health Director David Damsker, who said he found no evidence that transmission was happening within schools.

At its Oct. 1 meeting, five out of nine Council Rock North School Board members expressed support for returning to five-day in-person learning as early as mid-November, though it's unclear if the recent surge in cases have changed their opinion.

The board is scheduled to vote on a return to full-time instruction at its meeting Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m., which will be live-streamed on the district's YouTube channel.