FORT WAYNE — Just four days after telling school board members that the district was “preparing in case we do need to close” while hoping the situation didn’t come to that, Northwest Allen County Schools Superintendent Chris Himsel announced Friday that NACS will close its doors March 16 through April 13 in an effort to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. NACS joined East Allen County Schools, Southwest Allen County Schools and Fort Wayne Community Schools in announcing closures last week at the Grand Wayne Center.

“For the vast majority of us, the disease itself is not as big of a concern, but when you think about the fact that we can carry it and pass it along to elderly people and to those with compromised immune systems and other critical medical issues — and many of those are kids in our districts that we serve, or staff members who we employ, or students and staff members who go home to parents and grandparents and children who they care for and they are the primary caretaker for … — it became obvious that we were going to have to move towards closing schools,” Himsel said Friday.

NACS held no educational activities Monday or Tuesday. From now until April 13, Himsel said, “We will create remote learning opportunities for our kids, which will be a modified e-learning, so that we can stay in touch with our kids, check on them, making sure that their wellness is being taken care of, support kids and their families, as well as continue to progress their academics.”

Himsel said during the closure NACS intends is to provide food for students that require free and reduced meals.

The four Allen County school districts announced their closures during a conference with the Allen County Department of Health last week. It was one of several meetings between the health department and school districts to determine their roles in managing a local outbreak.

“We do understand the magnitude of this on our families,” Himsel said. “We understand the magnitude of this decision on our community. We also believe, with the help of (Allen County Health Commissioner Deborah McMahan) and all the people who have been meeting for the past several days to learn about pandemics and to plan for how to address pandemics, that this is what’s best in the long-term interest for our community.”

NACS parents received a letter Feb. 28 urging them to pay special attention to travel bans and restrictions with spring break on the horizon. Several other documents regarding the coronavirus are available on the front page of the district’s website, www.nacs.k12.in.us/home, which Himsel said NACS will update as it receives new information.

During a meeting of the NACS Board of School Trustees March 9, Himsel said district schools had already implemented additional cleaning procedures and protocols, including increased access to hand sanitizer.

“We’ve also taken steps to make sure that the elementary kids have additional opportunities to wash their hands throughout the day, particularly before and after lunch, and other opportunities throughout the day,” Himsel said at the meeting.

The outbreak has taken its toll on sporting events as well. Carroll’s gymnastics team performed in the Indiana High School Athletic Association State Finals on Saturday, despite the competition being closed to spectators.

In an email last week, NACS Athletic Director Dan Ginder said Carroll extracurricular events had been put on hold until after spring break — which ends April 3 — at which point the situation will be re-evaluated. The season openers for Carroll’s baseball and softball teams were scheduled to take place during spring break.

The Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend announced last week that it would close all of its schools for three weeks, beginning Monday. Concordia High School is also closed until April 14. The school said in a news release that there currently won’t be any makeup days added to the end of the school year, due to Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s announcement March 12 that schools would be allowed to close for 20 days for the rest of the year.