St. Jude Thaddeus School puts Junior High to remote learning

St. Jude Thaddeus School put out a call today for parents of six through eighth grade students to pick up their children at their earliest convenience as the junior high at the school goes into remote learning through Thanksgiving.

A message from Principal Mike Haugen posted on Facebook said a person in the junior high has tested positive for COVID-19 and the school will use the time of remote learning to thoroughly sanitize the junior high classrooms.

He said in the message the teachers at the school have prepared them for the possibility of going to a remote learning situation.

Haugen said in the message that if a child is considered a close contact, the Hill County Health Department will contact them and they should refrain from calling the health department.

The notice comes as Montana recorded a new high in one-day reports of new confirmations of COVID-19.

The state COVID-19 response tracking map update this morning listed 1,214 new cases in the state, bringing the total to 44,244.

Of those, 18,378 are active cases, with 492 active hospitalizations and 477 deaths.

Locally, Hill and Blaine counties have seen a comparative drop in new cases -- Hill County confirmed 17 Thursday night and Blaine County confirmed four -- but totals still are high for the counties.

Hill County has 241 active cases with 24 active hospitalizations and 26 deaths, while Blaine County has 121 active cases with nine hospitalizations and 14 deaths.

Hill County has confirmed a total of 1,078 cases over the course of the pandemic and Blaine County has confirmed 453.

The update to today's state tracking map reports Chouteau County has two new cases for a total of 177, 93 active.

The map reported no new cases in Liberty County, which has a total of 39 cases with one active.