North Texas districts cancel school after MLK break due to staffing shortages, COVID-19 surge

More districts are canceling school after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day break as COVID-19 cases continue to surge.

North Texas school leaders hope the longer break will allow anyone who has recently tested positive for coronavirus — including the hundreds of teachers who are absent — to quarantine safely so they can return to school next week.

Weatherford, a district about 30 miles west of Fort Worth, is closing all campuses Wednesday through Friday. Students and staff are scheduled to return to classes next Monday.

Staffing shortages have caused Lake Worth ISD, a 3,300-student school district in Tarrant County, to close all schools from Wednesday to Friday. Campuses will reopen on Monday, according to a tweet from the district.

Princeton Superintendent Donald McIntyre warned families that his district was dealing with a significant rise in positive COVID-19 cases. If the trend continues, the district may have to close one or more campuses, McIntyre wrote on Tuesday.

Mansfield and Northwest, two Tarrant County-area districts, are closing all campuses through Tuesday. Mesquite and White Settlement ISDs will close all their schools through Wednesday.

The swift spread of the omicron variant has left many districts with no other option except to close campuses because of severe staffing shortages and the lack of substitutes.

Mesquite officials noted that more than 15% of staff were absent.

“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,” district officials noted on Mesquite’s site.

White Settlement ISD Superintendent Frank Molinar wrote in a recent letter to families that his district would also have to close until Wednesday. He said more than 150 staff members — out of about 825 districtwide — are out due to illness, COVID-19 exposure or because their children’s day cares are closed. Absenteeism in the 6,600-student district is also at a high.

“All available personnel are being utilized to cover classes and staff who are out; however, the rising staff absentee rates are making this increasingly difficult to provide adequate staffing,” he wrote.

Dealing with the same issues, smaller rural districts are feeling a heavier burden because they have less people to fill positions at their schools.

Area districts that canceled classes on Friday include: Boyd and Argyle, districts about 30 miles north of Fort Worth; Kemp, which is about 45 miles southeast of Dallas; Red Oak, a school district in northern Ellis County; Krum and Pilot Point, two districts just north of Denton; and Forney, a district east of Mesquite.

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