Corbin schools to close for two weeks

The effect of several different illnesses continues to be felt in the Tri-County as another local schools district elected to cancel classes to try and allow those that are ill to recover.

Officials with the Corbin School District announced Monday that schools will be closed for the remainder of the week, as well as for the scheduled Fall break, which means students will not return to class until Oct. 19.

According to Corbin Superintendent Ed McNeel, the decision was made Monday afternoon but it wasn’t based solely on student absenteeism numbers. Attendance numbers hovered around the 88 percent mark on Monday, the same as Friday’s numbers, but the number of teachers out is what sealed the deal.

“Our numbers were the same as Friday with 88 percent attendance, but we had 25 teachers out sick today (Monday), which is 16 percent of our teaching staff,” he said. “Some of them we didn’t even have enough subs to fill their spots.

“We were hopeful that the two days over the weekend would help the matter and then we were going to try and get through Monday and Tuesday, but things got worse,” he added. “As for the district overall, the attendance was the same, but some schools had a drop off and some did better, but overall it wasn’t very good.”

McNeel said the days missed will be counted just like snow days and that the district has a certain amount built in to the schedule. Dependant on how many days are missed throughout the remainder of the year, the days may have to be made up.

Though students and teachers will miss instructional days, McNeel said the district’s custodial staff will be hard at work trying to make the schools germ free when classes resume.    

“We will do a lot of special cleaning over the two weeks that we will be out and hopefully by then, we can resume with some sort of normalcy,” he added.