GRAY — SAD 15 Superintendent Craig King announced Tuesday that Gray-New Gloucester High School students would be sent home immediately due to two positive cases of COVID-19 at the school. King said the two cases, a teacher and a student, are unrelated and that there are no suspected or confirmed cases at the district’s four other schools.

Students will continue with remote learning until the school reopens on Nov. 30.

In a follow-up message, King said that all students and staff who potentially came into contact with the two positive individuals had been contacted. He said that despite the two positive cases, “this was not the driving factor in closing the high school.”

“The primary reason we closed the high school is due to a critical shortage of substitute teachers and substitute support staff. The confirmed COVID-19 cases exacerbated the existing substitute problem.”

SAD 15 schools have been operating under a hybrid learning model, where students are learning in-person two days a week and remotely the other days.