Six Mansfield Independent School District elementary schools will temporarily close starting Thursday due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
The school district said due to the number of COVID-related absences and a shortage of substitute teachers, the six campuses will be shut down through Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The six schools are Janet Brockett, Louise Cabaniss, Judy Miller, Martha Reid, Tarver Rendon and Roberta Tipps.
“Day-to-day operations at those campuses are strained, and it is difficult to sustain a productive learning environment while continuing to ensure the health and well being of our students and staff,” a news release from the school district said.
Students will be able to return for in-person instruction on Tuesday, Jan. 18. Custodial staff will deep-clean the campuses prior to students’ and faculty’s return.
Classes are canceled Thursday and Friday, and Monday was already scheduled as a holiday. Students won’t need to attend extra days to make up the work, a district spokeswoman said.
Mansfield ISD follows a trend of many local and North Texas school districts affected by COVID-19 spikes recently. For example, in January, Fort Worth schools have had their highest number of staff members out due to COVID-19 since the district started its data dashboard in August, according to the district website.
As of about 4 p.m. Wednesday, 1,489 of the Fort Worth district’s 11,019 employees — more than 13% — had been quarantined since the beginning of the new year, according to the district’s live COVID-19 dashboard.
The omicron variant of COVID-19 has caused community transmissions to spike across Texas. So far this month, Tarrant County has repeatedly set new pandemic highs for the positive test rate, with a seven-day average rate above 39% as of Saturday.
A few other North Texas school districts also have canceled classes this week, including Boyd, Kemp, Krum, Maypearl, Pilot Point, Red Oak and Venus ISDs, WFAA-TV reported. And teachers association officials say other districts with staff shortages likely will have no choice but to close some schools if the trends continue.
Red Oak canceled Friday classes and also will be closed Monday for the holiday. Students in the other districts will be out of school Thursday and Friday and will return Tuesday after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday.
Staff writer Kaley Johnson contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 3:24 PM.
