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More details emerge on Sage Point closure

by CHARLES H. FEATHERSTONE
Staff Writer | November 18, 2020 1:00 AM

MOSES LAKE — It took five people coming down with COVID-19 to send all 470 students at Sage Point Elementary School home for two weeks.

According to Claren McLaughin, a spokesperson for Moses Lake School District, three students and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday.

However, because all three students were in different cohorts — classrooms — everyone was sent home to quarantine for 14 days out of caution.

“Sage Point was closed due to multiple cohorts being quarantined,” wrote Stephanie Shopbell, an environmental health manager with Grant County Health District, in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald.

Under the current guidelines, Shopbell said the health district will recommend a school closure if 10% of cohorts in schools with 10 or more classrooms are sent home, or if a “school cannot function due to insufficient teaching or support staff.”

The school district announced late Monday that all students at Sage Point would start remote learning Tuesday.

According to data from school district, there are 26 teachers and 12 non-teaching staffers at Sage Point Elementary School.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.