Laconia High, Huot Center closed after COVID diagnosis

LACONIA — Classes at Laconia High School were canceled at noontime Thursday after school officials learned that a staff member had tested positive for COVID-19, Superintendent Steve Tucker reported.

In-school classes for Friday at LHS were suspended, and all students will be learning remotely. Tucker said school officials plan to notify staff members and parents over the weekend how this development might affect classes next week.

The city’s three elementary schools, and the Laconia Middle School, will remain open and will be in session as usual, Tucker pointed out.

“At noontime, we were informed that a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 at Laconia High School. Upon receiving this information, the dismissal process at LHS and the Huot Career and Technical Education Center (on the LHS campus) began,” Tucker said in a letter emailed to the School Department’s staff.

Members of the Laconia School Board were also notified.

The school was notified of the COVID-positive diagnosis at noon and students were dismissed at 12:35 p.m., the superintendent said.

Tucker said the process of conducting contact tracing had begun. He said school officials reached out to the state Department of Health and Human Services for guidance, and the district would be following the department’s guidelines.

In addition to the contact tracing, LHS and the Huot Center will undergo intensive cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting.

This is the first COVID-positive case that has affected the operation of any of the city’s schools. While a staff member at Laconia Middle School was required to quarantine for two weeks last month after a family member tested positive for COVID-19, the school was able to continue operating as usual.

Under state guidelines for contact tracing, any school staff member or student who many have had close contact with the infected staff member (closer than 6 feet for 10 continuous minutes or more) will need to be tested for COVID. In addition, DHHS will contact those people and instruct them how to self-quarantine at home, Tucker said in his letter.

Tucker said the school district’s bus provider, First Student, was able to bring in the necessary number of buses on short notice to accommodate the early dismissal.