LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ)- Fayette County Schools is pausing its limited in-person learning program before Thanksgiving as coronavirus cases rise in Lexington and across the state.

Targeted services brought more than 4,000 kids, identified by their teachers as needing extra help, back to class each week in mid October.

Superintendent Manny Caulk says the district has to anticipate a big family holiday like Thanksgiving could spur community spread.

“Ideally, we would want to pause targeted services for 14 days after Thanksgiving break to mitigate the risk and give people time to quarantine after potential exposure,” Caulk said.

He says that would mean targeted services would begin again the final week of school before winter break, which might not be very productive because that’s when exams are happening and classes are ending.

According to the district, most schools will wrap up targeted services on or before November 20th.

The district says the program was a success.

“Proving we can safely provide in-person learning for small groups of students even when our community has been in the state’s red designation for incidence rates”

While state guidelines encourage schools to stop in-person classes if their county is in the red zone, targeted services are allowed.

The district says there have been cases among students and staff who took part, but there was no transmission and cases did not interrupt services across the district .

According to FCPS, students whose families selected in-person instruction will return to class when school starts again in January. If Fayette County is still in the red zone, that could start online.