A school district in Arizona was forced to cancel Monday classes after more than 100 staff members called out.
The J. O. Combs Unified School District in Arizona’s Pinal County was set to resume in-person classes but notified parents in a letter dated Friday that “we have received a high volume of staff absences for Monday citing health and safety concerns.”
“Due to these insufficient staffing levels, schools will not be able to re-open on Monday as planned,” the school district said. “This means that all classes, including virtual learning, will be canceled. At this time, we do not know the duration of these staff absences, and cannot yet confirm when in-person instruction may resume.”
The school district added that they “will continue to monitor the situation and will share an update no later than 5:00 p.m. on Monday.”
A spokesperson for the school district told Phoenix ABC that at least 109 people, including teachers and office staff, have requested not to work.
Last week, the head of the Arizona Health Services Department and the state’s superintendent of public instruction laid out a series of guidelines that public schools were urged to use when deciding whether COVID-19 infection rates are low enough to safely reopen for full in-person learning.
