With a spike in students in quarantine, the Emmett School District took a step to ramp up coronavirus testing Thursday.

The district partnered with Crush the Curve Idaho to offer testing for students and staff, setting up a makeshift test site near the high school baseball and football field.

“We’re moving into our second month of face-to-face learning,” Superintendent Craig Woods said earlier in the week. “We don’t want to lose that momentum, and we also want good and reliable data to make appropriate decisions.”

But increased coronavirus cases — and a rising number of students in quarantine — have disrupted the district’s reopening.

Emmett High School closed on Sept. 26 for a deep cleaning. On Tuesday, the district reported four confirmed cases and nine probable cases tied to a family member who had tested positive. That has resulted in additional quarantines. From Sept. 1 through Sept. 28, the district quarantined 134 students and five staff members.

“We’ve had quite a few disappointed students — students in tears — because they’ve been told they have to quarantine for 14 days,” Woods said. “We understand that. We want to contain this so more students are not in the same situation.”

The district hopes to have results from Thursday’s tests in time for a special school board meeting scheduled for Monday.