Johnson County district cancels school. Why? Nearly 20% of teachers out due to COVID
The De Soto school district in Johnson County is joining some other Kansas City area districts in closing schools this week because of COVID-19 among staff.
The district announced Thursday that it would cancel classes Friday because too many teachers are absent and it is unable to secure enough substitutes.
“The district has had nearly 100 teaching positions unfilled this week, requiring school and district staff to try to fill the gaps,” officials wrote in a letter to families. “For Friday, January 14, nearly 20% of classroom teachers are already not available. This is having a negative impact on our daily instruction for students. This challenge does not take into account absences among our school support staff.”
In addition, more than 10% of students have been absent this week due to illness, officials said.
Also on Thursday, the Eudora school district in neighboring Douglas County announced that it canceled classes on Friday because of so many cases among students and staff. Officials with the Manhattan-Ogden school district, west of Topeka, also said that schools would be closed on Friday due to difficulties staffing classrooms.
And the Bonner Springs Edwardsville school district in Wyandotte County canceled classes on Thursday and Friday, saying a quarter of students were out sick.
Districts have been reporting a record number of COVID-19 cases, driven by the highly contagious omicron variant, among students and staff, exacerbating staffing shortages.
De Soto district officials said students are expected to return Tuesday, after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and “hope the four-day weekend will provide the recovery individuals need to avoid further disruption to the learning process.”
In an effort to keep schools open, the Kansas State Board of Education on Wednesday temporarily lowered the requirements for substitute teaching licenses so that college credit is no longer necessary. Missouri had already taken similar measures.
Last year, facing such outbreaks and mass quarantines, school districts pivoted to online-only classes while buildings were temporarily closed. But this year, it’s much more complicated because of new state restrictions on remote learning in both Kansas and Missouri. Districts can only use a limited number of hours for remote learning.
That has left several districts to completely close schools and use days built into the calendar, for inclement weather and other events, rather than pivoting to virtual learning.
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 4:56 PM.
