Pleasant Valley School District notified parents Thursday afternoon that classes would remain online for all students for another week.

Superintendent Lee Lesisko said, “Based upon staff reported COVID symptoms and the recommendation of Dr. Reed, chief epidemiologist of St. Luke’s University Health Network, Pleasant Valley School District will continue with remote instruction until Tuesday, Jan. 19.”

In an interview, Lesisko said that the district has received calls from both staff and students letting them know of their COVID illnesses. He had asked the school community to contact the district when they knew they were sick.

“We’re seeing the COVID cases coming out from the holidays,” he said.

Last week, the district announced that in-person classes would not resume on Jan. 4 for the elementary and intermediate school students, but be extended until Jan. 11 due to an increase in COVID-19 symptoms in staff. Three teachers in the elementary school and seven teachers in the intermediate school reported symptoms.

Before Christmas, in-person classes were postponed until Jan. 11 for students in the middle and high school, due to COVID cases and contact.

According to the state Department of Health, community spread in Monroe County, as of the last week of December, was 19.6% or 329.2 people infected per 100,000 people in the county. For Carbon County, the rate of positivity for that period was 18.9% or 502.9 people per 100,000 people. This was the most up-to-date information on the DOH’s Early Warning Monitoring Dashboard.

Lesisko said he hopes any remaining cases of COVID from the holidays will come out during this extra week of online classes, then maybe they can begin the new year running smoothly.

“I’d like to hit the ground running,” he said.