Riverside County schools are being ordered to stay shut until April 30, after being required last week to close until April 3.

The county’s public health officer, Dr. Cameron Kaiser, made the announcement Tuesday morning, March 17, as county officials move to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Kaiser’s original order came Friday, March 13, and applied to all public and private schools, preschools, charter schools and all colleges and universities in Riverside County. Originally, schools would have been free to reopen Monday, April 6.

Kaiser’s decision drew a mixed reaction from students, teachers and parents, who suddenly found their unplanned break would be getting even longer.

Candice Hirt, a 17-year-old senior at Lake Elsinore’s Lakeside High School, was saddened to learn her campus will be shuttered several weeks longer than she had anticipated.

“I’m really, really bummed about it,” Hirt said. “It’s my senior year and everything is getting cancelled — like prom, grad night and graduation.”

Kaiser made the announcement during a briefing to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. Kaiser was expected to sign the extension order later Tuesday, county spokeswoman Brooke Federico said in a text message.

Kaiser’s extension of the schools closure came the same day it was announced that a third novel coronavirus patient in Riverside County has died from the virus and that the disease had been confirmed in western Riverside County. Previously it had been found in the county only in the Coachella Valley desert region.

Hirt, who starred in the school’s fall play, “The Cake,” had been directing rehearsals for a spring production titled, “Check please.”

“We were really far along,” she said.

Hirt said the play was set to open April 10, and now the production’s fate is unclear.

Her mother, Kimber Quintus, is a full-time parent educator at Cottonwood Canyon Elementary School in Lake Elsinore.

“I’m nervous because I work for the school district,” Quintus said. “I’m trying not to buy into fear, but this is a scary feeling not knowing about my job situation. I have mixed emotions. I feel like April 30 is a bit much.”

Art Plinkski, who has worked for Hemet Unified School District 27 years and taught history at Hemet High for 23, said he feels upbeat despite the uncertainty.

“I think everybody’s doing their best to try to handle a difficult situation that’s entirely fluid,” Plinkski said.

Some people have suggested it would a great time for teachers to take a long trip, he said, but he and his colleagues are under a district directive not to leave the county.

“No. 1, it’s not a vacation. No. 2, I want to be here to answer whatever questions my kids have,” Plinkski said.

He said teachers are providing assignments for students, though they are strictly voluntary. Not all students have laptops at home, he said.

The timing of the closure, in some ways, is good. Plinkski said the juniors in his advanced U.S. history class happened to be studying the Great Depression and the sophomores in his World History class were examining World War II.

“These are big historical events,” he said, and they relate to what is happening now.

“This is big. And how we respond to it is something that, hopefully, when we look back on it in history, we will be able to take pride in,” Plinkski said.

And, so, he hopes many students will do the voluntary assignments.

But most of all, he said, “I just want them to be healthy.”

Dawn Sonnier, a school counselor at Hemet High school who lives in Idyllwild, was stunned by the school-closure extension to April 30.

“Obviously, when we heard that news it was a shock that it is going to be this long,” Sonnier said. “We are just in an uncharted period at this time. This is new for all of us.”

But she said health is paramount and she supports the decision.

“I’m just concerned about the unknown — what will happen with graduation,” she said. “It will hit the seniors the hardest.”