ST. HELENA PARISH - Officials with St. Helena Parish Schools have decided to, once again, revert all of the district's public school students to eLearning classes beginning Monday, Dec. 7.

The decision comes after all public school students were tested for COVID-19 over a three-day period from Monday, Nov. 30 until Wednesday, Dec. 2, which is when results indicated that a total of 109 students needed to be quarantined.

The results, which were made public in a Wednesday afternoon news release, are pictured below. 

The news release included the following statement from school officials: "Due to the high percent positive rate (22%), Students who attend St. Helena Arts and Technology Academy (SHATA) will revert to eLearning beginning Monday, December 7, 2020.

More information will be available from school administrators regarding class schedules, attendance requirements, special circumstances, and other related matters before the end of the week. Students will return to face-to-face instruction on January 5, 2021."

School leaders opted on administering COVID tests to all students after a St. Helena Parish school employee tested positive for the virus on Nov. 12.

The school system said after the employee's test results were revealed, the individual was placed in quarantine and students across the parish reverted to eLearning via Microsoft Teams until after the Thanksgiving break, which is when they would be tested.

Now that those test results have revealed that in-person classes may lead to outbreaks, school officials issued the above mandate to protect students and staff.  

While acknowledging the downside of learning at a distance, school leaders explained that by reverting to eLearning classes now, they hope to prevent the shutdown of parish schools.

In any case, St. Helena Parish students are learning to be adaptable. As a result of the ever-shifting nature of COVID's impact on the community, they've transitioned from in-person classes to eLearning classes several times within the last nine months.