Two Missouri school districts cancel classes due to rising COVID, staff shortages
Due to rising COVID-19 cases and staffing shortages, at least two Missouri school districts north of Kansas City have canceled classes, ending the fall semester early.
The South Nodaway school board, in Barnard in northwest Missouri, unanimously decided to cancel school this week, through Christmas break, due to staffing shortages. Nodaway County has one of the highest infection rates in the state, according to Missouri health department data.
“This decision was not made lightly and we apologize for any inconvenience or burden families must bear as a result of this closure, however it is our belief that students are best served educationally through in-person learning and we intend to reschedule these days of school when more students are able to be present,” Superintendent Dustin Skoglund wrote in a letter to families.
And the Polo school district in Caldwell County, east of St. Joseph, also agreed to start the holiday break early “due to the large capacity of illness that our elementary and lower middle school is experiencing,” officials wrote in a statement to families. The district’s holiday break now begins on Thursday.
Days before that announcement, Polo Superintendent Kyle Ross said in a letter to parents that due to a recent court ruling, the health department would no longer require students who are exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine. Unless a student tests positive, he wrote, parents have the choice of whether to send their exposed children to school or keep them home.
That comes after Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt threatened legal action against health departments and school districts statewide that do not drop their COVID-19 mitigation orders. Agencies have been scrambling to interpret the decision issued by a Cole County judge, which declared key public health regulations unconstitutional.
Some school districts, such as Lee’s Summit, Kansas City Public Schools and North Kansas City, have defended their mitigation measures. An attorney for the Lee’s Summit district responded to Schmitt with a scathing letter saying the attorney general did not have the legal authority to issue such a demand.
Earlier this week, two Clay County districts, Kearney and Smithville, agreed to drop their mask mandates in the coming weeks and ease up on quarantine rules, allowing students who have been exposed to someone with COVID to remain in school as long as they are asymptomatic.
And a growing number of local health departments are ending their COVID-19 efforts after Schmitt demanded the agencies comply with the ruling.
In the South Nodaway district, Skoglund wrote that there have been 11 recent COVID-19 cases among students and staff, and several others who have fallen ill but are not yet confirmed cases. That’s a heavy burden for the district, with fewer than 200 students enrolled, according to state data, amid ongoing staffing shortages.
“It is our hope that the additional time away from school will promote wellness and recovery for those staff, students and community members dealing with illness and allow them to celebrate the holiday with their families,” Skoglund wrote in the letter.
He said the district will adjust its calendar to make up the canceled school days.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 3:59 PM.
