News Photo by Crystal Nelson Posen High School sophomore Trenton McCormick lifts weights while sophomore Josh Gardner spots him Wednesday in the Posen High School weight room. Sophomore Ava Wesner is pictured in the background.

ALPENA — Northeast Michigan school officials say they will continue to implement six feet of social distancing in their districts when possible, although new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says students can be spaced three feet apart in classrooms.

New guidance from the CDC recommends elementary school students should be at least three feet apart in classrooms while middle and high school students should be at least three feet apart in areas of low, moderate or substantial community transmission.

In areas of high community transmission, middle and high school students should be three feet apart if cohorting is not possible. This recommendation is because older students are more likely to be exposed to the virus and spread it than younger children, according to the CDC.

Alpena Public Schools, Alpena Community College, Alcona Community Schools, Posen Consolidated Schools, and Pied Piper School will continue to implement social distancing at six feet.

“We’re going to social distance to the best of our ability,” Alpena Public Schools Superintendent Dave Rabbideau said. “That six foot is the gold standard, but we recognize there will be times during the day that three foot (distance) will help us out.”

Rabbideau said district officials would factor the three feet social distancing requirement into contact tracing when determining who may need to quarantine.

He said, when contact tracing, district and health department officials consider distance, what kind of activity the student or staff was doing at the time of the exposure and the length of the exposure.

Posen Consolidated Schools Superintendent Michelle Wesner said district officials decided to stick with what has been working and Alcona Community Schools Superintendent Dan O’Connor said district officials don’t anticipate changing anything at this point.

“Our structures are all set up for as close to six feet as we possibly can get across the district, so we’re going to hope to maintain that to the best of our ability through the end of the school year and reevaluate from there,” O’Connor said.

Alpena-Montmorency-Alcona Educational Service District Superintendent Scott Reynolds said the school would continue using six feet of social distancing when possible because students at Pied Piper School are among the most vulnerable.

Jay Walterreit, director of public information and marketing at Alpena Community College, said the new guidelines were discussed at the college’s emergency management meeting Wednesday.

Walterreit said the discussion came up when a college instructor asked if all of their students could return to the classroom under the new guidelines. He said students in that class currently use overflow rooms to maintain six feet of distance.

“The consensus was the CDC guidelines are for children, but adults still need to be six feet apart,” he said.

The CDC continues to recommend at least six feet of distance between adults in the school building and between adults and students. Six feet of distance should also be observed in common areas such as school lobbies and auditoriums, when masks can’t be worn, during activities when increased exhalation occurs, and in community settings outside of the classroom.

Superintendents Nick Hein of Rogers City Area Schools, Rod Fullerton of Onaway Community Schools, and Carl Seiter of Hillman Community Schools and Atlanta Community Schools were not immediately available to comment.