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COVID-19, staff shortages push school districts to change learning plans

Since Monday, a handful of schools have made changes to help make sure kids and the community are safe to return to in-person learning.

TOLEDO, Ohio — COVID-19 continues to have an impact on schools across northwest Ohio.

Since Monday, a handful of schools have made changes to help make sure kids and the community are safe to return to in-person learning.

Toledo School for the Arts is one of the most recent to join the list of districts extending winter break because of lack of staffing and COVID-19. They point to issues like the ability to have enough people to cover bus routes and classrooms.

"We didn't feel we could adequately staff the building to the point where we could have in-person classes. That, combined with the number of student absences that were also reported, contributed to the decision to extend our winter break," TSA Director Doug Mead said.

Meanwhile, Washington Local Schools Superintendent Kadee Anstadt thinks this problem is just the tip of the iceberg.

"People aren't even really in the mode of calling into school yet because they haven't missed school yet so I have a feeling it's a lot worse. I think the lack of testing probably means there are more positive cases out there than we even know about," Anstadt said.

The number of employees out varies from district to district. So, too, does the reason.

At TSA, COVID-19 is the main reason staff is unable to work.

"The number of faculty and staff that we would have absent may not be significant for other school districts, but when you look at it from an overall percentage of staffing, it can be very high," Mead said.

School leaders say they had every intention of returning back to class without any changes.

But an increase in COVID-19 cases and a lack of available people to cover have put districts in the position to extend winter break, move to virtual or a combination of both.

In the last 48 hours, school districts like Washington Local have seen huge jumps in positive COVID-19 cases, for both students and staff.

Anstadt says she was expecting to see an increase as they returned from break -- but what they're seeing right now is alarming.

"It's double the number of positive cases, more than double at this point, on staff than we've ever had. If you think about pre-vaccine and all these times during the pandemic when we've seen the spikes. This is more than double the number of cases," she said.

 As of Jan. 5, Washington Local had more than 40 employees out with the virus, but about 120 employees are out in total.

With that many people unable to work, Anstadt says it's debilitating.

"It breaks our heart to have to do this, but I would rather get well and spend January, February, March, April and May in school than be home and remote for a month or two because we got too sick," Anstadt said.

Testing has also been an issue for people in the county. Anstadt says her district has COVID-19 test kits for staff and families, should they need them.
She says families can get in touch with their school's nurse to get them.

   

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