More than 100 Gilford High students in quarantine

GILFORD — About a quarter of the student body at Gilford High School is currently quarantining due to possible coronavirus exposure.

"We do have 104 students in quarantine right now. That started last week and we had more contact tracing happen over the weekend," said Kirk Beitler, superintendent of schools for Gilford. Three staff members are also in quarantine.

At least six of those quarantining have tested positive for COVID-19, and Beitler said he did not know of anyone in the school community who was seriously ill.

"We had a positive case on Thursday, that caused us to go remote for a day to try and figure things out and get the correct people quarantined, and we had more positive cases over the weekend," Beitler said.

A commonality between all of the exposures is spring sports, Beitler said. If a Gilford team has a game, and the next day a member of either team tests positive for coronavirus, then all members of both teams must enter quarantine protocol. That situation has surfaced for both boys' and girls' lacrosse, boys' and girls' tennis, and the baseball team, Beitler said.

"They've played against teams with a positive, we've had positives on our teams, spring sports has definitely been an impact. That's over the last 10 days," Beitler said.

The wave of students in quarantine crested on the same day that the state announced that anyone 16 and older can now register for a vaccine, something that gave Beitler hope that what he called the most difficult year of his career might soon start feeling normal.

"I think people getting vaccinated helps the situation for sure, I'm hopeful that students will start to get vaccinated," he said.