MATTAPOISETT — After seeing a sharp increase in covid cases, one Center School classroom will begin to learn remotely, the Old Rochester Regional School District announced Thursday, Nov. 18.

The school’s participation in the state’s Symptomatic and Test and Stay testing programs revealed “an increased number of positive COVID-19 cases,” according to the district.

Since weekly data was last reported on Nov. 11, Center School reported 13 new cases of covid-19, according to the district’s covid-19 daily dashboard. Center School also reported that 16 students were currently isolated due to close contacts as of Nov. 18. 

In the Tri-Town as a whole, Marion had eight new cases, Mattapoisett had 16 and Rochester had 14 over the past week.

The district predicted that students in the affected classroom will be able to return to school in person on Monday, Nov. 29.

“Our top priority is to keep our students and staff members at all of our schools safe, and we have many protocols and procedures, including the state’s testing programs, in place districtwide that help us both respond to an increase in COVID-19 cases and work to limit potential in-school transmission,” Superintendent Michael Nelson said.

The district did not announce the grade of the classroom that will temporarily be learning remotely. 

The situation closely mirrors another instance of a Center School classroom transitioning to remote learning due to an increase in covid-19 cases. On Friday, Oct. 1, a second grade classroom went remote. At the time, the district predicted the class would return to in-person learning on Oct. 12. 

The Old Rochester Regional School District reports weekly covid data every Friday evening. 

Eight new cases of covid-19 were reported in Tri-Town schools last week. Between Nov. 4 and Nov. 11, Center School reported five new confirmed cases of covid-19. 

No further information is available about the current outbreak at this time. 

“The decision to transition the classroom to remote learning was made out of an abundance of caution and with the support of state and local health officials,” Center School Principal Rose Bowman said. “We will be working to ensure that the affected students and their families have access to the proper learning resources during this time.”

The district said it would “conduct a deep and thorough sanitization and disinfection” of Center School in the coming days.