WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — More than 1,000 staff members in the state’s largest school district are in quarantine because of COVID-19, but currently all Wichita schools are open.
The Wichita Eagle reports that district records show that nearly 14% of the school district’s staff — some 1,033 people — were off because of COVID-19 illnesses or exposure as of Friday. That is up from 912 and 646 in the previous two weeks.
Earlier this month, the district had to temporarily close several schools, including one of its high schools, because of staff shortages as the highly contagious omicron variant of the virus spread, But at the moment, the district is keeping all schools open even as the staff absences set a record for the school year.
Kansas schools are having enough problems finding teachers that the State Board of Education lowered the standards for substitute teachers earlier this month.
Unlike last year when many Kansas school districts turned to remote learning when virus cases soared, this year schools are opting to close schools temporarily because a new law restricts online learning to no more than 40 hours per student.
But there was some encouraging news in the district’s latest numbers because the number of student virus cases declined. The district said 543 students tested positive for the virus between Jan. 20 and Jan. 26. That’s down from 915 the previous week and down from the peak of 1,285 set two weeks ago.
The seven-day rolling average of total daily new cases in Kansas also decreased over the past two weeks, going from 7,928.57 new cases per day on Jan. 14 to 6,008.86 new cases per day on Friday.
