COVID-related staff shortages close Pflugerville ISD, Williamson County school districts

The Pflugerville school district is closing Friday and Monday because too many teachers are out with COVID-19, the district announced late Wednesday.

In a letter to staff and families, Superintendent Douglas Killian said the closure is intended to help staff recover, noting the district had been struggling with vacancies across many departments even before the latest COVID-19 surge.

He cited a shortage of substitutes, bus drivers and educational aides, in addition to teachers, and he encouraged people to apply for district jobs.

"In my 30 years in education, this is the highest number of vacancies I’ve seen at this point in the school year," he wrote. "If you or someone you know is looking for a job – we’re hiring. If you have a bachelor’s degree, we will work with you to obtain your teaching certificate. It takes a lot of personnel working together in various capacities to provide an education to our children, and we’re happy to see where you could fit in."

Killian said the district cannot go fully virtual because the state is basing funding on in-person attendance this semester.

Pflugerville appears to be the first school district in Travis County to temporarily shut down during this spring semester.

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Williamson County closures

Three districts in Williamson County closed schools this week because of staff shortages.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Liberty Hill and Granger school districts announced that all their schools would close through Friday. The Jarrell school district made a similar announcement Tuesday.

Liberty Hill district officials said they were "experiencing historic temporary staffing shortages due to COVID and COVID-related illnesses."

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By Wednesday, the district had reported more than 100 staff absences for six days in a row.

"Due to the continued staffing shortages and student absences, we feel it is in the best interest of our staff and students to close for the remainder of the week," the Liberty Hill announcement stated.

Student attendance dropped to 82% from the usual 96%, the district noted.

On Tuesday, Jarrell district officials said COVID-19 cases across the district were rising.

"We are experiencing critical staffing shortages, and we are unable to continue operating campuses safely until our employees recover and return to work," the district said on its website. "The safety of our staff and students is of the utmost importance."

The Granger district posted on its website and social media that the district is closed Thursday and Friday. The online announcement did not explain why, but Director of Operations Mike Abbott said in a statement the closures came because of "staffing and student attendance, community spread and surge of both flu and Covid-19 in addition to potential weather hazards," according to CBS Austin.

All three of those Williamson County school districts are expected to resume classes Monday. They join the Hutto and Marble Falls school districts, along with a growing list of mostly smaller school districts across Texas, in temporarily shutting down.

Last week, the Hutto school district, also in Williamson County, announced its schools would remain closed until Thursday. Marble Falls shut down Jan. 14.

The Houston school district, the largest in Texas, also closed schools on Tuesday because of a spike in COVID-19 cases, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Efforts to stay open

School districts do not have to report such closures to the Texas Education Agency, but about 200 statewide have closed this month, according to a list maintained by the agency based on notifications sent by districts and anecdotal reports.

In the fall, when the delta variant of the coronavirus led to a COVID-19 surge as students headed back to school in person, about 59 school districts temporarily closed, according to the TEA list. Central Texas school districts — including Round Rock, Leander and Hays — reported closing classrooms or schools in the fall.

School districts across Central Texas have reported an uptick in COVID-19 cases and staff shortages since students returned from the winter break.

The Austin, Round Rock, Leander and Hays school districts reported hundreds of staff absences within the first week of spring semester classes.

But many district leaders have said they are doing everything they can to stay open because of the toll seen in many students' academic performance and mental health during the transition to virtual learning earlier in the pandemic.

Without enough substitutes to fill in for teachers, many districts have deployed central office staff to classrooms and offered incentives for parents and community members to become substitutes.

In the Austin school district, district leaders said at a board meeting last week that about 400 central office staff were used as substitutes.

The district also has raised its substitute pay and invited more people to apply. People with fewer than 60 hours of college credits can now apply to substitute teach in elementary and middle schools.

But as in Pflugerville, most school districts are seeing staff shortages beyond teachers, such as custodial staff, bus drivers, and child nutrition or food service workers, said Karen Dooley, a senior consultant in human resources services for the Texas Association of School Boards.

"There's such a competitiveness for staff with their surrounding school districts, and with their businesses and industries within their communities," she said.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Pflugerville, Williamson County school districts close due to COVID-19