Woodland Hills shuts down intermediate school to disinfect building after potential coronavirus contact

Tony LaRussa | Thursday, March 12, 2020 10:22 a.m.

The Woodland Hills School District closed the intermediate school because of a potential exposure to the coronavirus, district officials announced Thursday.

In an alert posted on the district website, officials said the decision to close the school so it can be disinfected was made “out of an overabundance of caution” because a student interacted with a staff member of Colfax K-8 in Squirrel Hill, district officials wrote.

Woodland Hills Superintendent James Harris said one of the student’s parents works at Colfax.

Harris said work to disinfect the intermediate school will begin Thursday and continue Friday.

The school already was scheduled to be closed Friday for a teacher in-service day, Harris said, adding that the building is scheduled to reopen Monday.

“As a precaution, we’ve decided to use the entire weekend to clean all the school buildings,” Harris said.

The superintendent said district workers will use a special cleaning device that floods the area being cleaned with a disinfectant mist so no surfaces are missed.

Pittsburgh Public Schools shut down Colfax K-8 on Thursday after officials learned that a student may have been exposed to the coronavirus from a relative outside the school.

The district is planning to clean Colfax today using a device that sprays a mist with an electrostatic charge that clings to surfaces.