All Fort Dodge Senior High School students will be learning from home this week because of an increase in COVID-19 cases in the building.

The students will have their classes via the internet today, Tuesday and Wednesday. No classes will be held Thursday and Friday due to previously scheduled parent-teacher conferences.

The change affects about 700 students, which is roughly half the number that is usually in the building, according to Jennifer Lane, the director of communications and community relations for the Fort Dodge Community School Dsitrict. The other half of the student body is already in remote learning.

Lane did not offer any speccifics on the the number of COVID cases in the school.

“We just saw an increase in activity in the last week,” she said.

Because the switch to all remote learning is for one school only and is just for one week, the district did not need to get state permission to make the change, according to Lane.

The parent-teacher conferences, which will be done remotely, will be held.

All classes will meet virtually through Google Meet today at the beginning of each scheduled period. The link to the Google Meet for each class can be found on Google Classroom.

First period today will not meet until 8:30 a.m. to allow time for a staff meeting.

High school students who do not have internet access at home may check out a hotspot from the school district’s Central Office Building at 109 N. 25th St. to use for the week.

Homeroom and Multi-Tier System of Support will not meet this week.

The district plans to resume in-person instruction at the high school on Oct. 26.