By Jon King / jking@whmi.com


UPDATE: This story has been updated to report that at least two classes at Maltby Intermediate School are also impacted and will be going to a virtual format as well.


Some students at two local schools have been shifted to online learning because of confirmed COVID cases.

At least two classrooms at Hornung Elementary and two at Maltby Intermediate in the Brighton Area Schools district are starting virtual learning today after a notification was sent out Wednesday to parents. In an email from Hornung Principal Jack Yates, he says the Livingston County Health Department has reported “multiple positive COVID-19 cases among students within our school” and that since the cases are in different grades and classrooms, the health department made a “strong recommendation for masking for the next two weeks” for both students and staff while indoors at Hornung.

In addition, the health department was suspending the alternative quarantine option for any new close contact cases, while an optional testing clinic would be announced “in the near future,” adding that “As a result of the possible transmission in this classroom, you may wish to have your child tested. This is especially important if your son/daughter are experiencing any symptoms.” As for the classrooms that were going online as of today, parents were advised that their child’s teacher would contact them with ways to obtain classroom work and additional instructions.

Similar emails were also sent out to parents in at least two classrooms at Maltby Intermediate School.

The notification comes two days after all five public school districts in Livingston County announced they were switching to a new quarantine protocol for 7th through 12th-grade students identified as close contacts of a confirmed case, in which those students would not have to remain home as long as they were not exhibiting any symptoms and no one in their household had tested positive for COVID.

While Fowlerville Community Schools extended the program to all students in kindergarten through 12th grade, they did so without the health department’s recommendation, which noted that children in that age range have not yet had an opportunity to get vaccinated. The remaining districts in Livingston County have yet to make a similar extension.