ST. HELENA PARISH - St. Helena Parish Schools Superintendent Kelli Joseph announced Monday that school officials have decided to keep students in virtual classrooms at their individual homes as opposed to in-person classes on campus, until after the Nov. 26 Thanksgiving Holidays.

Officials tell WBRZ that after the holidays, students will be tested for COVID-19.

The announcement was made following a thorough deep cleaning of the area's schools, which was conducted before the weekend. 

The Friday district-wide closure and deep cleaning was carried out due to a possible exposure incident that occurred when the St. Helena College and Career Academy football team came into contact with a player on an opposing team who tested positive for novel coronavirus.

Though none of the St. Helena players tested positive, school officials decided to move forward with a system-wide cleaning and post-Thanksgiving district-wide testing.

"We've been opened since July, and we've had no more than five or six kids that have actually tested positive," St. Helena College and Career Academy School Principal Brandon Fontenot said.

"We are expecting a spike in numbers with Thanksgiving coming up. So working with the office of emergency preparedness, we will probably test kids again after Thanksgiving to make sure we're doing things so we don't have to close," he explained.

The COVID testing will be free of charge to parents, and will be conducted only if a consent form is signed.