Red State School District Shuts Down Due To COVID-19

Brandon Poulter 

A school district in South Texas is shutting down until August 29 due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, according to Kens 5 News.

Runge Independent School District (ISD) is a small school district south of San Antonio that services 195 students and operates on a four-day schedule starting Tuesday and ending Friday, according to Kens 5 News. The district’s COVID-19 tracker reported that 10 out of the 42 staff members in the district have COVID-19, prompting the Superintendent to shut down classes.

“The safety and wellbeing of our students, staff and community is a top priority,” Runge ISD Superintendent Hector O. Dominguez Jr. said in a letter according to Kens 5 News. “On Saturday afternoon, I began to receive calls.”

The daily average of COVID-19 cases in Texas was 153 per 100,000 on August 1., and increased to 199 per 100,000 as of August 12., an increase of nearly 31%, according to The New York Times.

“We’re a very small school district, so we don’t have the resources that another large district would have to cover classes,” Dominguez told Kens 5 News. The district will meet soon to draft a new instructional calendar to make up for the lost classroom time, according to Dominguez.

Lee County School District and Magoffin County Schools in Kentucky also shuttered their doors due to COVID-19, citing large drops in attendance due to multiple sicknesses, according to CNN.

Runge ISD did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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