The Battle to Keep School Open: ‘Every Day has Been a Puzzle’

Amidst skyrocketing COVID numbers, what has this week been like in the public school system?

“Every day has been a puzzle,” said La Grange ISD superintendent Bill Wagner. “But we’re getting through it.”

At LGISD, every day this week has brought a wave a new COVID cases. On Monday, 30 students and 11 staff members tested positive at LGISD. Tuesday, 15 more students and seven more staff members tested positive. Wednesday 24 students and three more staff members tested positive. LGISD has a total enrollment of about 1,871 students. Wagner said reserve bus drivers were called upon to drive routes and school administrators and aides were shuffling around covering classes for teachers who were out sick. He said other teachers were giving up their conference periods to cover for sick colleagues. The district has also had new substitute teachers volunteer to help, two on Monday and two on Tuesday, and they have been trained on the fly to pitch in.

High school and junior high basketball games versus La Grange had been cancelled by both Austin ISD and Smithville schools this week because of a significant number of cases on those teams. A handful of districts statewide have had to close this week because of COVID outbreaks. Wagner said there’s no threshhold that causes a school to have to close, but rather schools are closing if they hit an inability to staff the school sufficiently. As of press time Wednesday, Fayette Co. had an estimated 273 active COVID cases, among the highest total at any point during the now two-year pandemic.