By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City School District saw a huge spike in coronavirus cases and forced quarantines in the past six weeks.
The district announced its latest numbers of COVID-19 infections among students and staff and those who have been forced to isolate themselves.
As of Thursday, Dec. 17, there had been 69 cases of COVID-19 in the school district and 454 students and/or staff who have been placed on quarantine since the school year began in September. The district posts the information on its website at oceancityschools.org as part of its continuing effort to keep parents, faculty and students informed.
The high school has seen the largest number of positive cases with 46, and there have been 320 students or staff placed on quarantine.
The primary school has had nine cases and 88 students or staff quarantined, while there have been 14 positive test results at the intermediate school with 46 students or staff on quarantine.
The district has been operating on a hybrid schedule this school year, with half of the students in school Mondays and Tuesdays and then remote learning the other three days of the week, and the other half — or cohort — remote learning Monday through Wednesday and in school Thursdays and Fridays.
Staff members are in school five days a week.
For the first two months of the year, from Sept. 2 through Oct. 30, the district announced there were nine cases in the schools and 100 students or faculty quarantined.
The latest numbers, representing the last month and a half, show a large increase in cases and quarantines. Rising from nine as of Oct. 30 to 69 as of Dec. 17, and more than tripling from 100 actual cases to 454, an increase of 354.
The district recently amended its hybrid schedule because of the substantial rise in cases throughout Cape May County and the rest of New Jersey.
In a letter to the community dated Dec. 11, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kathleen Taylor outlined changes as the southern New Jersey region went to high-risk status.
At the high school, students went from having eight classes a day to six to increase time with teachers, and eliminated the group lunch period to keep students from congregating without masks as they eat.
At the intermediate school, remote tutoring service in math and language arts is being offered from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. The school also added office hours for each of the student cohorts.
The district launched the EASE Program to give primary school students “an additional dose” of Foundations instruction and support in England and language arts and expanded pre-recorded content.