CMHS COVID CLOSURE

Posted Date: 01/14/2022

Clarksville Family:

As you all well know, Covid has reclaimed its grip on Red River County, your own work environment and now C.I.S.D. We left Friday with a full staff in tact at our secondary campus and woke up Monday with 8 members out due to Covid. After extensive consultation with staff and the leadership at both the district and campus level, we will close the mIddle-high school campus until January 20th while Cheatham ES will remain open. I am certain the decision to leave close one campus and not all may be a bit confusing and for this reason, I am sharing with the community the supports for my decision.

The secondary campus has an attendance percentage of 86% which is not ideal but not at a breaking point for an I.S.D.
Although we acknowledge the need for all staff members here, 4 of the 8 are teachers out teach a core content class thus compromising the district’s ability academically enhance students
Any more teachers reporting tonight or overnight that they are too ill for work further compromises and already stressed academic environment
The secondary campus is +8 on meeting TEA requirements for minimum days, meaning that the 6 total days we are closing can be taken without extending this campus’ year into the summer.
All staff that were positively diagnosed on over the past weekend all will be able to return on January 20th giving us the ability to quickly get back to normalcy.

I have made the decision to leave Cheatham open although their attendance is sitting at a very low 83%. Here are the following reasons the support my decision.
Although attendance for kids is low, the staff there is pretty much intact, healthy and teaching
Cheatham was in this same situation last September and missed four days of instruction while the secondary campus remained open. Those missed leaves Cheatham at -2.5 with four days owed for instruction. Closing Cheatham pushes their end of year further into June and forces summer school to end in July. A July finish compromises family vacations.

In addition, the district level office will remain open; however, all UIL events will need to be rescheduled.