LHS, Huot go remote due to COVID

LACONIA — For the second time in a month, in-person classes at Laconia High School have been canceled after a school staff member tested positive for COVID-19.

Classes at the school were canceled at midday Thursday and students at both LHS and the adjacent Huot Career and Technical Center will switch to full-time remote instruction through Dec. 23, the last day of classes before Christmas vacation begins, Superintendent Steve Tucker said late Thursday afternoon.

Tucker said the decision was prompted after officials learned of a “positive case of a staff member with some staff and student close contacts.” He said the staff member decided to get tested for coronavirus after experiencing some mild symptoms of the infectious disease.

Both LHS and the Huot Center went entirely to remote learning for two weeks starting in mid-November after a test showed a staff member had contracted COVID-19.

The two facilities, like all other schools in the Laconia school system had been on a hybrid schedule since late November. The change was made in order to cut in half the number of students who would be in any of the schools at any one time at a time of dramatic increases in the number of new COVID cases in the state.

Meanwhile, kindergarten students at Woodland Heights School, and second graders at Elm Street School continue remote instruction after a staff member at Woodland Heights, and two second-graders at Elm Street tested positive.

All other Laconia students are continuing to attend classes under the hybrid schedule which is due to continue through Dec. 23.