Denali Borough School District

Three small school districts around the Interior plan to bring students back into the classroom next week, as long as the number of COVID-19 cases in the districts remains low.

Denali Borough School District officials decided Tuesday to close all three of its schools to in-class instruction through the holidays. The district superintendent says they made the decision to return to at-home online instruction after learning that two people who tested positive for COVID-19 had recently been inside Tri-Valley School in Healy.

The Denali Borough closed its offices to walk-in business and its classrooms to in-school instruction Monday after five cases of Covid-19 in the borough were reported last week.

Fairbanks North Star Borough School District officials decided this week to keep students home to work on classes online, in response to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases locally. But students in two smaller districts south of Fairbanks are attending class in schools, because there’ve only been a few COVID cases in their communities – so far.