JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — Due to the number of students who need to quarantine as a result of active COVID-19 cases at Duncan U. Fletcher Middle School in Jacksonville Beach, the entire school is shifting to online instruction beginning Thursday.
The school announced the shift on its website Wednesday, saying students should not come to school between Aug. 26 and Sept. 1. Instead, they should log in to their first period class on Microsoft Teams at the normal first period start time of 9:30 a.m.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Duval County Public Schools COVID-19 case dashboard indicated 32 students and 1 staff member at the school with reported cases of COVID-19.
During the shift to online instruction, all extracurricular activities, including athletics and arts events, are suspended. Those activities are set to resume when school returns to in-person instruction on Sept. 2, the school's website says.
All students should already have their school laptops and hot spot devices if applicable, but if they do not, parents should call Fletcher Middle School at 904-247-5929 on Thursday during normal school hours. Staff will make arrangements to get students their technology to connect to online learning.
Any necessary updates will come from the school in the form of a phone call or email, the announcement says.
On Tuesday, Baldwin Middle-High School announced it would be shifting to online instruction through Aug. 31 after the number of COVID-19 cases and the resulting close contacts exceeded 20% of the school's population.
The same day, Glynn County School System announced all of the schools in the county would shift to online learning due to a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases there.