SHOREWOOD — Several North Shore school districts are closing amid the coronavirus outbreak.
On Friday, the following districts announced that they were closing March 13 to April 13 with the possibility of an extension:
- Shorewood
- Whitefish Bay
- Brown Deer
- Cedarburg
- Fox Point-Bayside
- Germantown
- Glendale-River Hills
- Grafton
- Maple Dale-Indian Hill
- Nicolet
- Northern Ozaukee
- Port Washington
- Mequon-Thiensville
- Glendale
- River Hills
"At this time, we don’t believe we can meet the Virtual Learning requirements set forth by the DPI for a variety of reasons. Therefore, we will not be able to provide online instruction during our extended school closure. However, we are working to identify resources that parents can use with their students at home and will communicate these resources in a follow-up email next week," said Shorewood School District.
Other suburban school districts, including Merton and Menomonee Falls, also announced closures Friday. You can see a full list here. As of Friday afternoon, Milwaukee Public Schools remain open.
The scope of the coronavirus pandemic expanded significantly in Wisconsin on Friday. There are now 18 confirmed active cases of coronavirus in the state, including Milwaukee County's first cases.
As recently as Thursday, there were only 7 confirmed cases in the state.
The current cases are in the following locations:
- 6 in Fond du Lac County
- 4 in Dane County
- 3 in Sheboygan County
- 2 in Milwaukee County
- 1 each in Racine, Waukesha, and Pierce Counties.
1 other case in Dane County has since recovered from the disease.
On Thursday, Gov. Tony Evers declared a public health emergency for the state of Wisconsin. On Friday, Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties both declared emergencies of their own.
“We have been working aggressively to slow the spread of COVID-19, and this declaration allows us to get the resources we need to continue to be proactive when it comes to protecting Wisconsinites,” said Gov. Evers. “It is the latest step in the work our state agencies have been doing around the clock with our health care partners to prepare for the possibility of COVID-19 becoming a global pandemic.”