Area schools cancel classes due to staff, student absences

Graham ISD, Olney ISD and Open Door Christian School canceled classes this week due to an excessive number of absences from staff and students.

GISD made the announcement Wednesday, Jan. 24  to cancel classes Thursday, Jan. 25. The following day Friday, Jan. 26, was a previously scheduled non-school day and, as of Thursday, classes were scheduled to resume Monday, Jan. 29.

GISD Superintendent Sonny Cruse said that as of Wednesday morning, 299 students, 40 teachers and paraprofessionals, one cafeteria staff member and five maintenance/custodial staff members were absent.

“The numbers (from Wednesday morning) don’t even include the numbers that have gone home during the day today (Wednesday, Jan. 24),” Cruse said. “I mean, there’s probably 15 or 20 kids that have gone home (and) there’s two or three additional staff members that have gone home during the day today.”

While Cruse said the district is not tracking what illnesses are impacting the GISD campuses, he said he has spoken with area professionals about what is causing the absences.

“I know from talking to physicians there’s a lot of strep and there’s a lot of Flu A and Flu B going around, there is some COVID going around as well,” he said. “Stay home if you’re sick because we don’t want others to get sick.”

The GISD superintendent said a standing procedure for the campus is that students and staff need to be symptom and fever free for 24 hours before returning to school. The district has been pushing hygiene for those within the campuses and has upped cleaning procedures at those facilities.

“We’re encouraging… (students and staff) to wash hands (and) sneeze into your elbow,” he said. “We have increased our cleaning procedures with our custodial staff. ...We have a machine that sprays this antimicrobial mist and disinfectant and we’ve been using those on our campuses to spray classrooms and desks and doors. We had a principal meeting this morning where we were talking about making sure we have enough hand sanitizer, …Lysol wipes, Lysol spray to wipe things down, kind of some of the same procedures we used during COVID.”

Cruse said when he determines whether or not to cancel classes he looks at if the district is 10% below the regular average daily attendance of students as well as the staffing outlook.

“I look at staffing, how we are able to staff and cover kids. I can tell you right now on our campuses every paraprofessional that’s available…, everybody’s covering classes because we are short about 18 to 20 (substitute teachers) today,” he said. “So I look at all those various factors. And then, of course, I’ve talked to one of our local physicians this morning… to weigh out if it is beneficial if we give people a couple of days and does it really help. I think the prevailing thought is yes.”

Along with the announcement Wednesday from GISD, ODCS made an announcement that classes would be canceled for Thursday and Friday due to the number of staff and students with illness.

The first school district in Young County to announce closures was OISD. OISD announced Monday that due to an excessive number of absences from illness, all its campuses would be closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

The district said the closure would give staff and students the opportunity to recover and for OISD maintenance staff to sanitize all the facilities.

The Olney campuses were set to reopen Thursday, Jan. 25.

OISD gave an update late Wednesday that after receiving updated information regarding staff and students absences on campus and at the daycare, classes would be canceled into Friday, Jan. 26. As of Thursday, regular classes were scheduled to resume Monday for the Olney district.

The only district which, as of Thursday, had not canceled classes within Young County was Newcastle ISD. NISD Superintendent Shane Mallory said Wednesday that the campus has not seen the same impact that Graham and Olney have experienced.

“We’re fully staffed today,” he said. “We’ve got 93% attendance here today, which is a little bit lower than what we typically run somewhere (which is) 96-97%. So, we do have a few sick kiddos, but it seems to have hit everyone else around us a lot harder so far.”

The NISD superintendent said Wednesday that the absences have not reached the point where they were worried. He said every staff member was present and the district is making sure the facility is properly cleaned and sanitized.

“We try to make sure that we disinfect and we clean daily,” he said. “Our custodial staff and maintenance staff have worked hard to try to keep everything as clean as we can.”