Over 200 Chaparral High School Families Instructed to Quarantine After Possible COVID Exposure

219 families with children attending Chaparral High School received “close contact communications” late last week, instructing their child(ren) to quarantine for 14 days because of possible coronavirus exposure.

The Scottsdale Unified School District Superintendent, Dr. Scott Menzel, confirmed that the district learned of four additional known cases of COVID-19 at the high school, bringing the total number of active cases to 18, with 10 of those students attending school at least one day this past week.

The district is asking parents to keep sick kids at home and stressing the obligation of transparency.

Dr. Menzel and SUSD Governing Board Member Jann-Michael Greenburg are concerned that certain labs either are not reporting cases, or they are not doing it in a timely manner, which complicates the situation as they work with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health on how to proceed “in light of the increasing number of cases.”

High school students in the district just recently returned to in-person learning on Monday, October 12. The school’s athletics and some extracurricular activities have been holding practices in months prior to in class learning. In September, the school had to cancel several of their scheduled JV and Varsity football games after a varsity player tested positive for COVID-19.

The SUSD governing board is scheduled to hold a regular meeting on Tuesday, October 20. Dr. Menzel says he will be providing updates to the board as “it is important to share what we know, how we are responding, and to reiterate the importance of community support in mitigating the spread of COVID.”