WALES — Multiple students have tested positive for COVID-19 at Regional School Unit 4, prompting the school system to close all school buildings in Sabattus, Litchfield and Wales. Students will learn remotely until after Thanksgiving.

Superintendent Andrew Carlton said a family notified the school system over the weekend that they had a positive case. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention then notified RSU 4 of additional cases.

“When we started looking at our own contact tracing, we realized it had hit multiple buildings, multiple cohorts,” Carlton said. “Out of an abundance of caution, for the safety of our staff and students, I made the decision to make us go fully remote until after Thanksgiving.”

RSU 4 students have been going to school in-person some days and remote some days as part of a hybrid model. Students are separated into cohorts, with some going to class in person on Mondays and Tuesdays while others go Thursdays and Fridays.

Carlton said he did not know how many cases had been connected to RSU 4. He knew of no adults who had tested positive.

Students are scheduled to return to in-person classes on Nov. 30 for cohort A and Dec. 3 for cohort B. School administrators are expected to send out more remote learning information to families Monday and Tuesday.

RSU 4 has five schools, including one high school, one middle school and three elementary schools.