Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Denise Juneau and the Seattle School Board ordered all schools in the district closed beginning Thursday after the first known confirmed case of COVID-19 was reported Tuesday, shuttering Aki Kurose Middle School indefinitely.
What We Know:
- The district will shut down for “a minimum of 14 calendar days,” asking that its students and staff “treat this as if your building was about to go on spring break.”
- While announcing the event ban that has now taken effect in King, Snohomish, and Pierce Counties, Gov. Jay Inslee stopped short of ordering schools to close himself, but did urge them “to make contingency plans around how they could provide services to families in need if schools close for several weeks.”
“The decision to close the district was extremely difficult,” the district said in a news release. “We know that closing our schools will impact our most vulnerable families and we recognize that working families depend on the consistency and predictability of supports and services our schools offer. We are working with partners and the city to determine how to best mitigate the impact closing schools will have on working families.”
- Washington State has issued a sweeping ban on all events with over 250 people in three Washington counties, Seattle has opted to close all of its public schools for at least the next two weeks starting Thursday. Seattle Public Schools made the decision after “a lot of thoughtful input from multiple stakeholders, including principals, teachers, central office leadership, area superintendents, and in collaboration with King County Public Health.”
Additional details will be provided in a press conference at 2:30 PST p.m. on Wednesday.
