{"id":2012296,"date":"2023-08-25T16:42:41","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T20:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/small-school-districts-in-texas-kentucky-close-due-to-surge-in-covid-cases\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T16:45:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T20:45:17","slug":"small-school-districts-in-texas-kentucky-close-due-to-surge-in-covid-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/small-school-districts-in-texas-kentucky-close-due-to-surge-in-covid-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID cases force closure of small school districts in Texas and Kentucky."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsmall-school-districts-in-texas-kentucky-close-due-to-surge-in-covid-cases%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2012296&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>COVID Cases Force Closure of Tiny Texas School District<\/h2>\n<p>Most Texas students are back in the\u2062 classroom, but\u200c for one tiny rural \u2062school district,\u200c back-to-school was short-lived. A spike in\u200b COVID cases forced a tiny Texas \u2062school district to close earlier this week when \u200dnearly a quarter of its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-claims-119-olympic-athletes-and-staff-tested-positive-for-coronavirus\/\" title=\"China Claims 119 Olympic Athletes and Staff Tested Positive for Coronavirus\">staff tested positive<\/a>\u2064 for \u2063the virus.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe \u2064safety and well-being of\u2064 our students,\u200d staff, and community \u2063is a top priority,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> said Runge Independent School District Superintendent \u2062Hector Dominguez in a letter to parents, according to KENS-TV. The district serves 195 students across two\u2064 campuses in the rural community of Runge, located\u2063 in Karnes County, about 60\u200b miles southeast \u200bof San Antonio.<\/p>\n<h3>Temporary Closure and\u200d Safety Measures<\/h3>\n<p>On \u2064Friday, the district&#8217;s online COVID tracker\u2062 showed 10\u200d out of the district\u2019s 43 staff members had active cases of the \u2062virus. \u200bIt showed no\u200d active cases among\u2063 its students. The\u2064 tracker \u200dalso reports that 22 other staff members and 39 students have recovered from the virus.<\/p>\n<p>Classes were canceled Tuesday, Aug. 22, \u200cand are\u200b expected to resume on Aug. 29. The district follows\u200c a \u2064four-day class schedule from\u200d Tuesday\u200c through Friday. After-school \u2064and extracurricular activities were also canceled until students returned \u2064to\u200c class.<\/p>\n<p>The district did not immediately \u2064respond to The Epoch Times\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n<h3>COVID Cases Rise in Texas and Kentucky<\/h3>\n<p>Statewide reports of new COVID\u200c cases in Texas increased by\u2063 nearly 30 percent week over week, with 19,696 cases \u200cfor the period ending Aug. \u206419, according to Texas Health and Human Services. Kentucky\u2064 is also \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/small-school-districts-in-texas-kentucky-close-due-to-surge-in-covid-cases\/\" title=\"COVID cases force closure of small school districts in Texas and Kentucky.\">experiencing school closures due<\/a> to widespread\u200b cases of the \u200bvirus.<\/p>\n<h3>Kentucky\u2062 School Closures<\/h3>\n<p>In Kentucky, two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-joe-biden-to-push-biweekly-coronavirus-tests-for-children-amid-school-closures-omicron-fears\/\" title=\"Report: Joe Biden to Push Biweekly Coronavirus Tests for Children amid School Closures, Omicron Fears\u00a0\">school districts shut<\/a>\u2063 down \u2063classes this week due to widespread cases of the virus.<\/p>\n<p>Lee County School District in Beattyville canceled classes on Tuesday and Wednesday\u200b &#8220;due to student and \u2063staff illness,&#8221; the district wrote in a Facebook post on\u2064 Monday afternoon. Beattyville is about 75 miles southeast of Lexington.<\/p>\n<p>The district said students would have classes at home through non-traditional learning (NTI) \u2063on Thursday and\u200c Friday. \u2063Ten days after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/florida-school-district-reverses-mask-mandate-after-desantis-issues-executive-order\/\" title=\"Florida School District Reverses Mask Mandate After DeSantis Issues Executive Order\">school started<\/a>, 150 students, about 18 percent of\u200b enrollment, were out sick on Aug. 18, according to Lee County Schools Superintendent Earl Ray Shuler.<\/p>\n<p>A week later, 157 students \u2064missed classes due to illness. &#8220;That&#8217;s a lot for a small district of\u2063 897 students,&#8221; he said. Sports practices and games, along with other after-school activities, were also \u2062canceled.<\/p>\n<p>About 50 \u2064miles northeast\u200d of Lee County, classes were also called\u2063 off for students in Magoffin \u200cCounty Schools, the \u200ddistrict announced on \u200csocial media. The district&#8217;s first day of school\u2064 was Aug. 10.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, a high rate of student absences\u200d was due to \u2064a combination of illnesses. &#8220;We were seeing an \u200buptick \u2063in absentees. \u200dThey were saying COVID, but they were also putting \u2062strep \u200cthroat\u2063 in there, and there was a virus \u2064going \u200baround, a stomach virus,&#8221; said Magoffin\u2062 County Health Department Director Pete Shepherd.<\/p>\n<p>Now, COVID\u2063 cases\u200c have become the \u2063dominant illness report. Magoffin County Schools in Salyersville serves over \u200c2,000 students across six campuses.<\/p>\n<p>According \u200cto Mr. Shepherd, many of the cases have been mild, \u200cand &#8220;most parents&#8221; would not consider\u200d giving their children the COVID-19 shot. &#8220;Most \u2064parents \u200bare just \u2063&#8230;\u2064 their kids are going to get sick\u200d with it, we&#8217;ll hold them home \u200dand won&#8217;t send them to school. They&#8217;re\u200b not worried about vacc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>to parents and staff announcing the closure due to a surge in COVID cases. With almost 25% of the staff infected, the tiny rural school district in Texas had to abruptly end their back-to-school plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1556,"featured_media":2012297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2012296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2012297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}