COVID-19 causes Phenix City school to close building, move classes online
A staffing shortage due to the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a Phenix City school to be closed until after the Thanksgiving break.
All of Meadowlane Elementary School’s approximately 200 students went to remote learning Wednesday after the Phenix City Schools leadership made the decision Tuesday night, superintendent Randy Wilkes told the Ledger-Enquirer.
“According to the experts, this is the beginning,” he said. “What we do over the Thanksgiving holiday is so important to the safety and well-being of our students. We’ve got to be careful. . .. . We have a safe learning environment. Most of everything we can trace (among the system’s reported coronavirus cases) comes from outside of the schools.”
About 85% of Meadowlane’s students were attending in-person classes before the shutdown. None of them has an active COVID-19 case reported, Wilkes said. But with four active cases among the school’s 30 employees and other reasons for absences, he said, the school’s available staff was down to 70% and wasn’t enough to safely conduct in-person classes.
“Back in the day, you would combine classes and so forth,” he said. “You just can’t do that during COVID.”
To reopen Meadowlane as planned Nov. 30, Wilkes said, the school would need at least 80% of its staff available.
Compounding the problem is a dearth of substitute teachers. PCS started the school year with a list of around 90. That’s been cut in half because some are concerned about getting infected, Wilkes said.
“People do not want to work in that environment,” he said. “We understand that.”
