Staff, student 'absenteeism' closes city schools

Findlay City Schools was coping with a shortage of 23 teachers, 15 food service workers and several bus drivers Thursday morning, along with a "dramatic increase in staff and student absenteeism," when Superintendent Troy Roth made the decision to shut down the district. The school district will be closed today, with students expected to return to class Wednesday. With Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday and a scheduled two-hour delay Tuesday for teacher training, Roth said it made sense to close the schools now to give both students and staff time to observe quarantine and isolation restrictions for COVID-19. Extracurricular activities will continue as scheduled. The district's scheduled instruction time is well over the state's minimum requirement, so there should be no makeup days, officials said. St. Michael the Archangel School is closed for the same time frame, as the Findlay school district provides busing for the parochial school, an official at St. Michael's confirmed. Roth has said the decision to keep students in school was being made almost daily, depending on whether the district had enough personnel to staff each school day. He said the district has been making due by doubling bus routes and using both substitutes and administrators to fill in where needed. "We are very proud of what our team has done so far to keep operations running," he said. "Findlay City Schools staff members have stretched themselves to meet the needs of our students and community." He said virus cases have spiked dramatically in the past two weeks. On Thursday afternoon alone, the district's "confirmed close contacts" climbed by 46 students since earlier that morning. In all, the school district reported 768 close contacts among students by Thursday evening, with 113 confirmed positive cases. There were 38 confirmed COVID-19 cases among staff members and 20 staff members quarantined. While the district remains closed, new virus cases should be reported by email to building principals. Email or other communication tools used in the classroom should be used to contact teachers during the shutdown. Roth said the plan is to return students to the classroom full time on Wednesday. He said masking is still optional in the school district, but said "nothing is off the table." Roth said the "pause" will also allow the district to sanitize the school buildings. School officials have been encouraging students, staff and visitors to follow COVID-19 guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including wearing a face covering, social distancing when possible, and proper hand sanitizing. At Monday's regular meeting of the Findlay City Schools Board of Education, vice president Laura Eier asked that a public meeting be held to discuss the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the community. Eier proposed the meeting so school officials could hear firsthand, and together, information about the pandemic from local health officials. She said too often, school officials are getting their information about the pandemic from different sources. Eier alone does not have the authority to call a special meeting of the board. It would take the support of at least one other board member. The board president and district treasurer do have that authority; however, Eier's request was met with silence at Monday's meeting. Eier refused further comment on Thursday. The next regular meeting of the school board will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 7 in the community room of Glenwood Middle School, 1715 N. Main St. The meeting will be open to the public and will be livestreamed on the district's YouTube channel, Findlay City Schools. Grant: 419-427-8412