ONALASKA, Texas – Due to a COVID-19 outbreak, several school districts are closing their campuses or modifying instruction.
Here are the districts with changes and closures in alphabetical order:
Angleton ISD
Angelton ISD announced the closing of all campuses starting on Sept. 3 and will reopen on Sept. 7 for regular school hours.
Officials said they will not have to make up these school days, and students are not expected to work remotely.
The district announced that Westside Elementary currently had eight staff members and 24 students who have tested positive and is testing more students who are symptomatic at the campus.
The district asks parents of any students from the school who have tested positive, have shown symptoms, or been exposed to COVID-19 to call the school this week between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. at 979-864-8006.
All staff members will report as normal to work Wednesday unless they have tested positive for COVID-19, been exposed to COVID-19, or have COVID-19 symptoms, school officials said. This includes all Northside and Westside staff.
Extracurricular activities at the high school and junior high campuses will continue as coaches and sponsors communicate individually with their groups as needed.
During this closure, the district said it will continue to clean and sanitize the campus.
Danbury ISD
Danbury ISD schools (with the exception of high school) will be closed until next Tuesday because of increased COVID-19 cases.
The district said Tuesday that in the past few days, student absences have continued to increase due to COVID-related illness or close contact.
“We have reviewed absences at all campuses today and have made the decision to CLOSE Danbury Elementary School & Danbury Middle School for the remainder of the week to include Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,” the district said in a post on their Facebook. “This will also include cancelling any DES and DMS UIL events, extra-curricular or school meetings with DES or DMS students/teachers. Assignments or Homework will not be given during this closure. School will resume for students of DES and DMS on Tuesday, September 7, 2021 as Monday, September 6, 2021 is Labor Day Holiday for all students.”
Danbury High School will remain open and absences will be monitored daily, the district said.
Livingston ISD
The trajectory of the COVID-19 virus-positive cases has caused teacher staffing issues for the district. Livingston ISD will be closed Tuesday, Sept. 7 through Friday, Sept. 10, due to the staffing shortage from COVID-19 positive cases. There will not be regular instruction on any campuses or remote conferencing instruction for COVID-19 positive students during the closure.
Livingston High School extracurricular activities will continue as long as they can be sustained by non-COVID positive staff. All district instructional facilities will be closed Sept. 6-10.
Angelina College Dual Credit classes will be held online during the LISD closure.
A free COVID-19 testing clinic will be available on the Livingston High School campus for staff, and students from 8:00 am to 12 noon Tuesday, Sept. 7 through Friday, Sept. 10.
You may call the high school campus at 936-328-8600 during this time.
Onalaska ISD
Onalaska ISD Elementary School and Onalaska Junior Senior High will be closed until Sept. 7 to help mitigate the spread of the virus after students and staff members were either diagnosed with COVID-19 or experienced possible exposure, the district said in a letter to parents.
During the closure, Onalaska ISD said it will conduct a deep clean throughout the two campuses as those who tested positive recover.
Onalaska ISD also said there will be no remote instruction during the closure and that the school calendar will not be altered unless deemed necessary. Extracurricular actives, games and practices will be suspended until 3 p.m. Sept. 6. The district said that the closure may be extended if the situation worsens.
For those with questions, Campus administration will be available to answer at Onalaska Elementary School: 936-646-1010 and Onalaska Junior Senior High: 936-646-1020.
Pearland ISD
Pearland Independent School District announced that it will temporarily close Rustic Oak Elementary after an increase in positive COVID-19 cases at the campus.
Rustic Oak Elementary will be closed on Thursday and Friday. During the closure, students will not participate in remote learning.
Pearland ISD plans to reopen the elementary school for students on Sept. 8 unless the district has determined the closure need to be extended after evaluation
If a child tests positive during the campus closure, parents are asked to notify the campus nurse Sheila Scott at scotts@pearlandisd.org. On Sept. 7, optional rapid testing will be offered for students.
Sweeny ISD
The district has decided to temporarily close Sweeny High School due to COVID-19 cases not decreasing. The school will be closed from Wednesday through Sept. 6, allowing custodial staff to deep clean the campus.
District officials said Sweeny Elementary and Sweeny Junior High will remain open and operate as normal and students are expected to report to school.
All high school student competitions, games, events, practices and rehearsals have been canceled. The school will continue to provide free lunches for any high school student from 11 a.m. until noon.
To prevent students from falling behind, all high school students should access their work on Canvas. If your child has not received a Chromebook and Hotspot, they may pick them up between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 2 in the High School Bus lane, according to the district.
If your child begins experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, all campuses will continue to offer free testing opportunities and ask for parents to contact their school nurse for more information.
Waller ISD
Waller Independent School District announced it will temporarily close Schultz Junio High from Sept. 6 to Sept. 10 after 46 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
As of Friday, there were 22 staff members out due to COVID-19 symptoms, pending tests, positive tests, and other medical reasons, the district said.
The school will not switch to online learning during the closure due to a lack of funding from the state. During the closure, there will be no school events, including extracurricular activities and our maintenance team will deep clean the building.
Student cases should be reported to nurse Valerie Charles at vcharles@wallerisd.net and staff cases should be reported to SJH Principal Hannah Gates at hgates@wallerisd.net.