COVID and staffing shortages force school closures

In an announcement early last week, Nome Public Schools Superintendent Jamie Burgess told elementary school families that a “shortage of healthy staff and substitutes impacts our ability to host school safely and effectively.” Nome Elementary School was closed the entire week from Monday, February 28 through Friday, March 4.

During Tuesday’s school board meeting Nome Elementary School Principal Mrs. Elizabeth KorenekJohnson reported that eight NES staff members tested positive in one day, Wednesday March 2, causing Thursday and Friday school closure.

Nome-Beltz Middle and High School Principal Jay Thomas also reported that the assistant basketball coach and the head coach tested positive this week.

Nome Public Schools implemented a “test to stay” policy. Unvaccinated or unboosted students who were deemed close contacts but whose parents wanted them to attend school in person were provided with at-home test kits and had to show a negative test each day of what would otherwise be their quarantine period.

A December 17, 2021 edition of the Center for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, had two studies on the “test to stay” strategy, which the CDC called a “valuable tool.”

This week, a notice was sent to Nome-Beltz Middle and High School parents, saying: “Due to short-staffing & the inability to hold school safely, we must make the difficult decision to close school for NBMHS on Thur, March 10 and Fri, March 11.”

In an email to the Nugget, Burgess expanded on the situation, saying that both school closures are for similar reasons, namely short-staffing due to lack of substitutes and support position vacancies. “We have been unable to cover classroom vacancies due to illness and other reasons,” she wrote. “We have not closed schools for any situations around COVID in students. We had another situation earlier in the school year when we had to close Nome-Beltz for a couple of days due to short-staffing. Hopefully this helps understand our situation. We are hoping that as the COVID cases trend back downwards we won’t have to deal with this again.”

In late January, there were school closures due to inclement weather, staffing shortages, and then a sewer issue after a plastic bag was flushed down the toilet at the elementary school. Students are advised to work on their so-called blizzard bags, containing lessons and homework assignments.