COVID outbreak forces Bethlehem elementary school to temporarily return to virtual learning

Bethlehem elementary school goes temporarily virtual due to spike in COVID cases

Parents of the 450 students at Miller Heights Elementary in Bethlehem got a letter late Friday afternoon telling them their school will be shut down and students will go back to virtual learning for the rest of the week.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Local parents are left scrambling after a spike in COVID cases in several classes put the entire school virtual for a week.

An extra day of summer vacation kicking the soccer ball around isn't exactly what Gianna Loquasto expected just two weeks after 5th grade started. But COVID had other plans.

"Disappointed is really the word certainly. It’s two weeks in. You had a lot of momentum coming out right now thinking we’re going to be charging full ahead and you get hit with this right off the bat," dad Pat Loquasto said.

The Bethlehem Area School District reported 12 positive cases at the school, involving five separate classrooms in four different grade levels. The school district made the move after consulting with the local health department, but they also say there’s no particular case number that would force a closure.

For parents like Pat Loquasto had to scramble for child coverage this week. He and his daughter just hope it’s only a week.

"We’ve been down this road when they said the schools were closing for two weeks and it turns out to be a year and a half. So we just hope it’s just the one week and we can get back on track and back into school again," Loquasto said.