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As board members, school officials and attendees sat six feet apart to practice social distancing during Thursday afternoon’s meeting, Butler County School System Superintendent Joe Eiland announced that a COVID-19 case has been confirmed.

In a letter written by Eiland and read during the regularly scheduled monthly board meeting, which was also aired on YouTube Go Live, he disclosed that a parent of a McKenzie School student had been diagnosed with the deadly virus.

“While it is unknown when this parent contracted the virus, this family was advised by the ADPH (Alabama Department of Public Health) to contact everyone that their family has had contact with over the last two weeks,” Eiland wrote. “Therefore, out of our responsibility to you and your family, we are sending this notification to inform you that students attending McKenzie School and staff members may have been exposed to COVID-19 through contact with this student.”

Eiland also said cleaning measures for all school facilities are already in place.

“As we look ahead to the date when students will resume attending classes at McKenzie School, we have already begun the process of disinfecting the campus before students return to school on April 6,” he concluded.

As of 4:30 p.m., the ADPH had reported 78 cases of the coronavirus and no deaths in the state. It is unknown if this case had been reported, however, Butler County was not listed on the website (http://www.alabamapublichealth.gov/infectiousdiseases/2019-coronavirus.html) as a county with a confirmed case.

“We are updating case counts in the table above and our dashboard twice a day,” the site reads below the virus count table. “Cases confirmed after 4 p.m. will be added the next day.”

To read Eiland’s entire letter, click HERE.