Kingfisher Public Schools officials were hoping they’d receive some extra time before the inevitable happened.

They didn’t get their wish.

It was confirmed Monday that a second teacher at Kingfisher Heritage School – the district’s third and fourth grade center – had tested positive for COVID-19. Two other teachers, the district confirmed in a letter to school patrons, had also been in recent close contact with those teachers.

It prompted Superintendent Jason Sternberger to announce Monday afternoon that Heritage would be moving to its distance learning plan for 14 days beginning Tuesday.

“That’s the potential of four teachers in that building, which is 40 percent of one grade level there,” Sternberger said. “That makes a huge difference and until we absolutely know more this was the step we felt necessary and safest.”

HIPAA laws restrict the information the school can publicly provide about students and teachers. However, the district immediately began to contact trace in an effort to alert anyone whose children may have been exposed.

The district works with the health department to ensure its following CDC guidelines.

The CDC defines “close contact” as any individual within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes beginning two days before the onset of illness.

The CDC also says symptoms may not occur for two to 14 days, so any individuals identified as being in close contact must be quarantined from school for 14 days, regardless if they test negative after the exposure, Sternberger said.

If there is a positive test result, the individual can return after 10 days from the initial symptom or date of test.

Also, the CDC recently released that if a person tests positive, they are immune for three months.

Sternberger said if a person falls within that timeline, they would not need to quarantine if exposed.

The district’s original plan wasn’t to shut down one building if there was an outbreak, but rather the entire district.

However, Sternberger said Monday the administration didn’t feel that step was prudent, therefore Gilmour Elementary School, the middle school and high school will remain open.

“Based on the numbers at the other buildings, it just didn’t seem necessary,” Sternberger said. “Based on the percentages, it just didn’t feel it was in the best interest of everyone to shut down those other schools.”

However, the district did initially request that parents keep siblings of Heritage students home for the 14-day period as well.

On Tuesday, the district rescinded that request after further clarification from the health department.

“We took some over-cautious steps to keep them at home while we were getting absolute clarification from the health department,” Sternberger said.

Monday’s news came on the heels of a message the night before from the administration alerting parents that a sixth grade student who had been in class last Wednesday (the first day of school) had since tested positive.

“If you are concerned your child has been in extended contact, please feel free to keep your child home until you feel comfortable sending them back to school,” the district said in a message to parents.

Kingfisher Middle School Principal Keith Campbell said about 40 students were absent Monday.

Sternberger, other administrators and staff had been preparing for an outbreak.

Despite students being in school since last Wednesday, they were fine-tuning the virtual learning methods in class with teachers.

(Ed. note: Each student in grades 3-12 has access to a laptop computer.)

“With 1,500 students and faculty members, we knew it was a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ someone tested positive for COVID,” Sternberger said.

When Sternberger discussed the district plan with the school board members, he knew timing would be key.

“We really hope we can get through that first full week,” he said. “That would be huge because it would allow the teachers to truly familiarize the students with their methods.”

Heritage students – and, by extension, several others – didn’t get that full week.

“It’s been a tough couple of days,” Sternberger said. “This is brand new to all of us and we appreciate the feedback and support we’ve received so far.”

The superintendent added that he’s aware there’s no clear-cut answer on anything COVID-related.

“We have to do our best as administrators and staff to make the decisions that we feel are best for 1,500 students and staff members,” he said. “We’re going to do that with the understanding that parents will make the decision that’s best for their specific child.”