LEBANON, Ohio — It has been a challenging first week of school for the Lebanon City School District as it works to contain the spread of COVID-19 after two students tested positive for the virus.

Just four days into the new school year at Lebanon High School, already more than 40 students have had to be quarantined after two students tested positive for COVID-19.

On Tuesday, 21 Lebanon High School students were quarantined after one student tested positive for COVID-19 and then Wednesday quickly became Groundhog’s Day after another positive test and another group of students had to be quarantined. Lebanon City School District Superintendent Todd Yohey sent a press release to parents and teachers saying they’re doing everything they can to contain the situation.

Yohey said this wasn’t necessarily a surprise to the school district.

“I can’t tell you we thought we’d have to deal with it on the first or second day but this was a carryover of some testing that happened before school started,” said Yohey.

The school’s website outlines a myriad of health checklists, face mask requirements, and hypothetical situations pertaining to COVID-19.

“Some of the dry runs that we did over the summer worked. We started prepping for reopening schools back in May,” Yohey explained.

Warren County Health Commissioner Duane Stansbury said the number of cases in schools is reflective of cases in the county and at this point. Warren County is seeing an increase of around 15 cases per day.

The health department has been working with school systems throughout the summer to implement new rules and protocols for students, especially older students.

“Junior high and especially high school are not going to be in the same classes with all of the same people throughout the day. That could be seven or eight different class periods,” said Stansbury. “Unfortunately, it’s going to have more exposure at high schools and even at the college level.”

In both of these cases, the district managed to have all communications and quarantine information out within hours — proof that their plans in place are paying off.

Below is the press release sent by the Lebanon Schools Superintendent Wednesday evening:

Additional Lebanon students quarantined

Lebanon City Schools has quarantined an additional 20 high school students today following confirmation of a second student with a positive COVID-19 test taken before school started. This is the second day in a row that a student attended school prior to receiving the results of their COVID-19 test. In both cases, the students were asymptomatic. Based on the criteria for exposure, no staff members have been quarantined.

The district has no additional information or comments at this time.

Quotes from Todd Yohey, Superintendent of Schools:

"I want to commend our staff for the rapid response in both of these cases. Our decision to hire our own contact tracer is proving to be the difference in waiting several days for notification. In both cases, we had all communications and quarantine information out within hours."

"We learned from the health department today that testing facilities are supposed to inform people who get tested to isolate at home until they get their test results. We do not believe that happened in either of these cases. There simply cannot be a breakdown of this type of communication. It increases the risk to our students."

Todd Yohey Superintendent of Schools