The Jefferson City School District announced it will not be in session Friday. The closure will be classified as a snow day, which means that students will be at home and will not be distance learning. The district has six weather makeup days built into the calendar.
The decision comes as the district faces substitute teacher shortages and increasing staff absences, which often require reassignment of teachers and staff to cover different classes.
“While this is manageable in the short-term, at some point this approach becomes unsustainable because we are not able to provide a safe and quality learning environment for our students. Projections for the remainder of this week show that staff absences will continue to be a concern,” the announcement said.
The closure is intended to “ease the strain” caused by staff shortages. The district will remain open, and crews will deep-clean the classrooms and high-touch areas.
“While we believe strongly that our students learn best when they are in the classroom, we must be prepared for the possibility of transitioning to distance learning as a consideration. We are doing everything we can, including implementing changes to our COVID-19 protocols, to keep our schools open. Our teachers and staff are working tirelessly to make this happen, and we are tremendously thankful for their efforts,” the announcement said.
The district moved into yellow status as of Tuesday, meaning that students and staff must wear masks when social distancing of 3 feet can’t be maintained. It also changed its isolation practices to match the new CDC guidelines, which call for five days of isolation before returning to school and masking through day 10.
The district’s previous announcement that moved schools into yellow status also said that professional development for teachers would be cancelled for the rest of the month to allow them to stay in their classrooms.