MORE SCHOOLS in state pivot to curb virus’s spread.

More Arkansas school districts have pivoted to remote learning this week because of the spread of the coronavirus.

Kimberly Mundell, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Education, said there were nine instruction modifications because of covid-19 so far this week, compared with 35 last week.

In some of those cases, the change affects only one or two grades at a particular school, not the entire school district.

“Schools are doing a really fantastic job of keeping their doors open,” Mundell said.

Since school started across Arkansas in August, 319 schools have had to pivot to some degree because of the coronavirus, and 77 have temporarily gone to remote learning because of weather, said Mundell. She provided those numbers at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, noting they change throughout the day.

Two of the school districts that pivoted this week are in Washington County — Elkins and West Fork.

Jeremy Mangrum, superintendent of the Elkins School District, said the entire district has gone to remote learning for the remainder of the semester, through Dec. 22.

“It’s so close to the break,” Mangrum said of the holiday season. “We’re going to be out for an extended period of time. We need to stop the spread here, and I’m hopeful that with the extended break, it will give us the opportunity to hit the reset button.”

Mangrum said there were nine active covid-19 cases on campus last week, and he decided Friday to pivot the sixth grade to remote learning.

Things got worse over the weekend. By Tuesday, the number of cases had increased to 32, with 10 staff members and 22 students. Another 13 staff members are in quarantine.

Mangrum said he thinks about 200 students will have to be quarantined.

Elkins has a total of about 1,270 students. About 200 of them were already taking all their classes virtually this fall.

Before Thanksgiving, the Elkins School District had only had about seven cases of covid-19, said Mangrum.

“We are at right now 56,” he said, including the number of students and staff members who have recovered from the virus.

Mangrum said the school district will provide meals for pickup.

Mundell said the West Fork School District also was pivoting to remote learning. Initially, the school district informed the state Monday that only its elementary school was pivoting to remote learning.

But a message Tuesday on the school district’s website from Superintendent John Karnes indicates the change is districtwide and will last through the week.

“This means no buses will run and no classrooms will be open for K-12 students,” Karnes wrote in the message. “The Elementary School started its pivot today. Unfortunately, as we went about school today in the other two buildings, we continued to be notified about additional positive cases popping up in all three buildings. I have prepared a letter explaining more details that can be found by clicking on the following link… http:// bit.ly/2LIR3Nj.

In Howard County, Billy Lee, superintendent of the Mineral Springs School District, said he learned Tuesday afternoon that one of his cafeteria employees had tested positive for the coronavirus. He said another four cafeteria workers will have to be quarantined, leaving only one who can go to work.

“They’re all on quarantine except one, so we can’t serve food right now,” he said.

The entire Mineral Springs School District has switched to remote learning for the remainder of the semester, through Dec. 22.

Lee said the district has about 400 students.

“We’ve still got schoolwork,” he said. “They’ve all got iPads.”

Lee said teachers will be doing Zoom classes from their classrooms.

“I’ll have to sterilize the campus the rest of the week,” Lee said. “I’ll spray and disinfect and make sure it’s clean.”

Lee said the school district won’t be providing meals for the rest of the week, but that could change next week.

The North Little Rock School District has extended remote learning through Thursday for the Center for Excellence, North Little Rock High School and North Little Rock Middle School-Seventh and Eighth Grade Campus. Superintendent Gregory Pilewski announced last week that those schools would do remote learning on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

The extension is an effort to slow the spread of covid-19, Pilewski wrote Tuesday in a letter to the school community on the district’s website.

The letter can be viewed at https://5il.co/nxha.