Knox County cancels school again because of sick teachers and staffing shortages
School in Knox County has been canceled for Wednesday, the second day in a row because of staffing shortages.
"Due to staffing challenges related to illness, Knox County Schools will be closed on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. Central office, maintenance and custodial staff will report as scheduled," Carly Harrington, Knox County Schools chief public affairs officer, said in an email to parents on Tuesday.
Since Jan. 14, there have been 95 teachers and 399 students reported with active cases of COVID-19. The numbers have not been updated since Friday because students and teachers have not been in school.
"Our active staff cases have been going up," Harrington told Knox News on Monday. "(We're) just seeing a significant increase in the number of absences, which makes it challenging, from an operations standpoint, to have school."
Switching to virtual learning is no longer an option for Knox County Schools. In most instances, schools can't be proactive with their choice to go virtual and instead must rely on waiver acceptance from the state.
Rebecca Wright: Higher education reporter at Knox News
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knox County Schools closed Wednesday due COVID-19 staff shortage
