CLEVELAND — Schools across Northeast Ohio are limping their way to winter break as they finish off 2021 with short staff and spiking COVID-19 cases, some having to even cancel class.
As schools are nearing two years in a pandemic parents like Angela Mcshan are frustrated.
Well, I got a phone call from my son today stating that everyone had to leave the school,” said Mcshan.
Her son is a ninth-grader at John F Kennedy high school in Cleveland. When he got to school and sat down in class Thursday morning the principal came over the intercom and said all students would be sent home by 9 am.
“But the thing is, I didn't get a call from the school, neither a text,” said Mcshan.
Cleveland Metropolitan Schools told News 5 before school started a list of staff members called out sick and they did not have the subs to cover. Adding the district does have an automatic call and text notification system for situations like this but Mcshan says she never received a message.
CMSD is not alone in facing the effects of another COVID-19 surge.
Stow-Munroe falls canceled two days of midterms after multiple students and staff members tested positive.
Hudson City schools basketball teams will not compete or practice the next few days due to outbreaks.
In Cuyahoga Heights, the school district superintendent Tom Evans says it’s been a struggle. In their district attendance averaged in the 90th percentile all year up until Tuesday.
“This past Tuesday we had about 28 confirmed cases in the district, we're a district of 850 students, so that's a big number for us,” said Tom Evans Cuyahoga Heights superintendent.
Some students will now have to take their midterms during the holiday break while others won't be able to participate in extracurriculars.
“This would have been a big weekend for us. Our hall of fame induction would have been tomorrow our luncheon and we host a basketball tournament. We had to cancel that or postpone it,” said Evans.
Now they are even trying to make plans for the next year.
“We're going to bring everybody in masked that’s middle school and high school will be masked beginning January,” said Evans.
But of course, it's all in the air.
“The best thing for our students is to be in our buildings. But we need to do that safely for everybody involved. And that's really important to us because we tell people it takes three villages and a school district to raise a kid,” said Evans.
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