Clark County Schools Closed For Illness

Clark County Schools Closed For Illness

By Mike Scott

“There is no manual for this situation,” said Clark County R-1 School Superintendent Ritchie Kracht on Monday afternoon.
With over 230 students absent Monday, and more going home every hour, the district has made the decision to close for the rest of the week.  Classes will resume on Monday, October 26.

“We’re getting close to 25 percent of the students being gone, and there are a lot here who should be home.  We need to get all these kids healthy,” explained Kracht.  Kracht reported the district is seeing kids with fever, sore throat, coughing and respiratory conditions.

“We discussed the situation with the Health Department, and the recommendation was to close,” he said.

The high school seems to be hit the worst, with over 100 students absent or sent home on Monday.  

“Last week we had pretty good attendance, but with a dance last Friday and a band event Saturday, those kids were confined together,” Kracht said.

Another concern is illness among the staff.
“We weren’t even sure we’d have enough staff to teach this week,” Kracht added.  “School is not very effective when everyone is sick.”

Kracht stated that everyone except maintenance staff has been asked to stay out of the buildings.  The maintenance staff will be cleaning the buildings thoroughly during the break.

The decision to close will cause several cancellations.  The JV and Middle School football games and Cross County for this week have been canceled.  

Parent Teacher conferences have been re-scheduled Tuesday, November3, from 3:30 until 7:00OPM.

The only activity remaining on the schedule is Friday’s football game versus Highland.

“Since it is a district game, we can’t change it or we’d have to forfeit,” Kracht said.  “We really wish we could do something different about that.”

The district will have to make up the lost days sometime later in the school year.