Detroit Public Schools Stop In-Person Classes

The Detroit Public Schools Community District is stopping all in-person learning in response to an increase in coronavirus cases in the city.

DPSCD announced today that all students will learn virtually as of Monday. Face-to-face classes and learning centers will be open through Friday to give parents time to make plans for next week.

The district’s re-opening plan committed to close schools if or when the infection rate in the community passed 5%. At the time of the announcement, cases in the city were approaching 6%.

DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti says the district succeeded in managing the spread of coronavirus in its schools.

“There was a lot of legitimate questions about can the district be trusted to actually implement what it said it was going to implement from, wearing masks, hand washing, social distancing cleaning buildings, following through wih the temperature checks and the symptoms checks,” Vitti said.

“We’ve had 100 buildings open to 10,000 students for over two months and we’ve only had three outbreaks. And that is minimal compared to what has happened throughout the nation, the state and individual districts and schools. And so we have been able to keep our families, our employees and our students safe even in the middle of a pandemic.”

The closure happens as DPSCD’s school board was set to meet in person for the first time since schools closed in the spring.

School districts across the state have closed as coronavirus rates continue to go up in many Michigan communities.