The Jim Thorpe Area School District will shift to a virtual learning program on Dec. 1, which will run through at least Jan. 18.

Students will return to class on Jan 19.

The decision was made during the district’s school board meeting on Monday night. The vote to go virtual was unanimous.

Superintendent John Rushefski said he had many meetings with the department of education, with information from the department of health.

“We were looking at things you would hear in the press like incidence rates and positivity rates,” said Rushefski. “Here in Carbon County, they’re escalating very quickly. … The concerning number is that age of 25-64. That rate is somewhere around 55, to just under 60%.

“Essentially, my supervision population here in Jim Thorpe are the ones that are the most under attack. My recommendation, that I’ll be giving later on to the board and the Jim Thorpe community, is based on the fact that we need to safely administer a COVID-19 health and safety plan throughout the district. We have to supervise it accordingly. The supervision, right now, we are at the end of our rope in terms of substitutes and coverage. We’re as spread thin as can be. Our concern is what will happen after the holiday.”

The original motion stated a two-week period of moderate or low spread through Carbon County and then a potential return to the classroom.

“Can we put a date on this instead,” asked board member TJ Garritano. “The reason being, I’m concerned for our parents that work during the day and they have no insight on to when they could possibly go back to work if one of the parents now has to stay home with the children that are going to be virtually learning.”

On Monday, the Department of Health reported over 11,000 new COVID cases over the weekend. As of Monday night, 1,076 cases have been reported in Carbon County.

“The two consecutive weeks, I’ve watched this thing bounce back-and-forth from substantial to moderate. It could go back every week and we would never hit that two-week time.”

The board determined that a return following Martin Luther King Jr. Day was the better plan.

The board will meet the week before the target virtual end date of Jan. 18, where discussions will be held in regard to whether or not the students should return to the classroom.