Two Central Texas school districts have shut down temporarily because of “staffing shortages” caused by too many teachers being out sick with COVID-19, and other districts are struggling to find enough substitute teachers amid a surge in cases.
Hutto ISD announced Friday that it would not reopen right away after the long Martin Luther King Jr holiday, instead remaining closed Tuesday and Wednesday, January 18-19.
“Despite our best efforts to deploy central office staff and all other available personnel to keep our campuses operating safely, the number of staff who are out with COVID-19 has overwhelmed our school district,” wrote Superintendent Celina Estrada Thomas in a letter to parents, students, and staff.
Hutto ISD had already cancelled school bus routes earlier in the week, “until further notice,” due to a chronic driver shortage coupled with Covid infections and quarantines.
Estrada Thomas disclosed that more than 200 staff were out on Friday, which is about a sixth of the district’s total authorized staff level of 1,195, including 160 confirmed positive cases. Additionally, 1680 students were absent, which is 20% of the student body, including 545 confirmed positive cases, or 6.5% of the student body.
Williamson County, where Hutto is located, reported more than 14,000 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the first two weeks of the year, equivalent to 17% of all cases recorded in the county since the start of the pandemic. The rate of new infections per 100,000 residents in the county is about twice as high as Travis County.
In Burnet County, Marble Falls ISD shut its doors on Friday, citing “staff shortages caused by a surge in viral infections,” but said that it would resume normal operations on Tuesday, after the long weekend. “We are saddened by the need to take this step, but MFISD does not have enough available staff to monitor students and maintain safe school environments.”
Round Rock ISD has kept its doors open but hasn’t had enough substitute teachers to maintain instruction in many classrooms. Spokesperson Jenny Caputo told KVUE TV that on Friday there were 800 staff absences and only 35% of the positions were filled with substitutes.
Similarly, Austin ISD has reported a shortage of substitute teachers in recent days and assigned central office staff to help fill the gap. Even several trustees and the superintendent said they signed up to fill in for absent teachers.
Statewide, case numbers have spiked to levels unseen even during previous peaks, but hospitalizations remain somewhat lower than the peak of the previous two surges. About 11,800 Texans are hospitalized with COVID-19 and more than 100 Texans are dying every day.
The Omicron variant that is causing the spread has been shown in lab tests to thrive better in the upper respiratory tract, but not as well in the lungs, compared to the Delta variant, which makes it more contagious but less deadly.
