South High School will be closed on Friday, Jan. 21st due to multiple staff absences as a result of COVID-19.
The Wichita school district said the school will reopen on Monday, Jan. 24th and athletic events will continue as scheduled.
Other USD 259 closures include Beech Elementary and Levy Special Education Center. Both were closed Thursday, Jan. 20th and will be closed again on Friday, Jan. 21st. Bryant Opportunity Academy will also be closed Friday the 21st through Tuesday, Jan. 25th.
Meanwhile COVID-19 continues to pose staffing challenges at USD 373 Newton. Newton Public Schools said in a press release Thursday that in the event a school building cannot be properly staffed, USD 373 would institute the following over a week-long period:
- The District Superintendent would call a “snow day” for students for one or two days but not for staff.
- During that “snow day” period, staff will prepare online lessons for a 2-4 day period to go to a remote learning environment.
- Your child’s school building would use this time to ensure students have the technology they need, including hotspots if Internet access is an issue. Further instruction on this will come from your child’s school.
- Your child’s school building would ensure food security for those families, which would involve setting up a food pickup at that school each day at noon for that day’s lunch and the next day’s breakfast.
- After the “snow day” period, schools would be in remote learning for a defined number of days. (Likely no more than 2-3 days as with the five day quarantine/isolation period changes, enough staff could return within that time frame.)
The district said that this is a temporary solution that will be assessed on a school-by-school basis, and that they do not expect any cycle to extend past a week.
