Katy ISD announced today that it will temporarily be shutting down in-person instruction at Seven Lakes High School after receiving a Corrective Action Advisement letter from Fort Bend County Health and Human Services. During the temporary closure, in-person students will be provided virtual instruction through at least Nov. 3 and students and staff are expected to return to campus Nov. 4.

“As outlined in the Katy ISD COVID-19 Mitigation Plan, with the temporary closure of in-person instruction, all extracurricular and student programs will be temporarily suspended during a campus closure. Athletic coaches, CTE teachers and Fine Arts Directors will be in contact with their students regarding the dates and times to resume practices and competitions,” a statement emailed to the parents of Seven Lakes students said.

Under the intermittent school to home situation described in the mitigation plan, students will attend virtual classes via the Canvas platform until they return to campus and extracurricular and student programs will be temporarily suspended during that time as well.

The district’s COVID-19 case dashboard indicates that Seven Lakes has a total of 48 cases among students and staff, with 43 of those cases involving students attending in-person instruction. Seven Lakes currently has 1,846 students attending in-person instruction and about 300 faculty and staff overseeing operations at the school.

“The campus’ active cases largely pertain to the close contact that occurred within an athletic and fine arts program,” a statement from the district said.

A letter sent to parents Wednesday by Seven Lakes High School Principal Kerri Finnesand said contact tracing conducted by the district’s emergency management team had determined that many of the COVID-19 cases for Seven Lakes High could be linked back to medium to large gatherings involving students.

“These gatherings include off-campus weekend parties where social distancing and mask wearing has not occurred,” Finnesand said in the letter.

Finnesand asked for parents and students to support faculty and staff in preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus by practicing good hygiene, social distancing and wearing appropriate face coverings.

Across the district, face to face students are currently experiencing a total of 135 cases; another 11 cases are reported among those attending classes through the Katy Virtual Academy; and 38 staff members currently have COVID-19, according to the KISD COVID-19 dashboard.

The district is referring parents to its Smart Restart website for additional information. Emails may also be sent to COVID19Responses@katyisd.org and questions can also be submitted by calling 281-396-7499.