Mesquite ISD is closing its campuses due to staff shortages caused by COVID-19. The district will be closing its doors to classes Tuesday and Wednesday, January 18 and 19.
With these adjustments, schools in the district will only open two days this week, as today is already a scheduled holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The district announced the closure in a statement, explaining that it was prompted by “an unprecedented number of staff absences on Friday.” More than 15% of the school district’s staff were absent, the statement said.
“The strain of covering classes in the midst of a severe substitute shortage has taken a tremendous toll on our staff members who are able to report to work, but our ability to safely monitor students in our care is quickly becoming unmanageable,” the statement read.
Mesquite ISD administrators said they informed parents of the closure early to give them time to arrange for childcare.
In the announcement, the district asks students and staff to “stay home to get well.”
Officials said that deep cleaning of the campuses would be done during the closure. They also said that students’ activities would continue as scheduled.
The closure was not factored into the school calendar, as the staff shortage was an unprecedented development. In a statement posted online, the district said that students and staff members would work on recovering the time off after resuming classes.
“The decision to close schools is never an easy one, and the time will have to be recovered by students and staff members; however, Mesquite ISD believes this action is necessary for our district under these extreme circumstances,” the statement read.
Mesquite ISD’s closing is not the first in the DFW area. In the midst of the surge of omicron cases and staff shortages, Rio Vista ISD shut down for two days and Mansfield ISD temporarily closed six elementary school campuses last week.