In a continuing pattern, four Central Texas school districts announced COVID-19 closures in one day.
Tuesday afternoon, Academy, Mexia, West, and Salado ISD said they will be closing campuses due to a rise in COVID-19 cases among faculty and staff.
"Due to the increasing number of faculty and staff that are currently impacted by the COVID-19 virus, AISD is making the decision to close all campuses for the remainder of this week," said Academy ISD.
The school district said staff and student attendance has been extremely low over the past several days.
"Without staff, the entire school function is disrupted from child nutrition, transportation, and daily cleaning to our instructional practices," said Academy ISD.
West ISD said after reviewing Tuesday's student and staff absentee numbers, the district is also temporarily closing school for the remainder of the week.
"For our students, the absentee rate increased from 211 to 274, and for staff, the absentee rate increased from 24 to 45. Both of these figures are greater than 20% of our overall student and staff populations," said West ISD.
Salado ISD schools will also re-open on Monday, Jan. 24 due to COVID-19's impact on staffing issues.
Mexia ISD said based on Tuesday's attendance the numbers, "were unexpected and alarming," on the first day back from a previous closure. The school district will be closed through Tuesday, Jan. 25.
