GUILDERLAND — Beginning on Thursday, Dec. 10, Guilderland students in eighth through 12th grade will learn from home due to staff shortages caused by quarantine requirements.

Students are scheduled to return to in-person learning on Wednesday, Dec. 16.

Two types of students — special-education students in self-contained classrooms and career and technical education students — will continue to attend classes in person.

So far this school year, 35 students, teachers and staff members combined in the Guilderland Central School District have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the state’s COVID-19 Report Card.

“Today we were informed of another individual from GHS testing positive. More students and staff members need to quarantine as a result,” Guilderland High School Principal Michael Piscitelli wrote in an email to “GHS Families” on Wednesday afternoon. Families were also notified with a robo call.

The state’s tracker, as of Wednesday evening, reports 22 COVID-19 cases at the high school — 17 for students and five for staff.

Guilderland High School students, who this year have been on a hybrid schedule, alternating in-person with remote classes, went to all-remote learning before Thanksgiving vacation, again because of staffing problems caused by quarantine requirements. They returned to in-person classes on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Wednesday’s notice followed on the heels of an email sent out on Monday, detailing six COVID-19 cases — three at the high school and three at Farnsworth Middle School.

This semester, to make space for social distancing in the district’s five elementary schools, fifth-graders are being housed in various wings of the middle school.

With the new middle-school cases, and the need for several faculty to quarantine, all faculty, staff and students in the Westmere fifth-grade wing shifted to remote-only instruction on Dec. 8, and will resume in-person instruction on Tuesday, Dec. 15.

All other Farnsworth Middle School students and staff, who are not otherwise quarantined, are continuing with in-person instruction.

The state tracker reports that, so far this semester, six people at Farnsworth have tested positive for COVID-19: four students, one teacher, and one staff member.

In the district’s other schools, according to the state’s tracker, Westmere and Guilderland elementary schools have each had one case, Lynnwood Elementary has had two; Altamont elementary has had one; and Pine Push Elementary has had none so far.

Piscitelli wrote in his email to Guilderland High School families that meals for all students in grades 8 through 12 can be picked up at the high school between the hours of 10 a.m and 3 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 10, and then again on Monday, Dec. 14. Anyone with questions about meals, should contact the district’s food director, Megan Beck, at beckm@guilderlandschools.net.

“We have been planning for this situation and I am confident the transition will be as smooth as possible for the students,” Piscitielli wrote. “I do understand how difficult this can be for families, we did not make this decision lightly. Thank you for your understanding and flexibility during this time.”