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EDITORIAL: School district ‘pause’ shouldn’t lead to closures

Clark County public school students will miss two days worth of classes after district officials announced this week that they’ll close campuses on Friday and Tuesday due to COVID staffing shortages. Let’s hope this disruption is nothing more than a brief reset.

“This five-day pause will promote a safe, healthy learning environment in our schools to ‘Stop the Spread’ in order to continue face-to-face instruction,” a district release said. Superintendent Jesus Jara made no public comment. That was a mistake. Mr. Jara should be reassuring parents that in-person learning will indeed resume Wednesday.

The decision comes just one week after students returned from holiday break. But with the omicron variant now spreading rapidly, employee absences in the district have been running as much as 34 percent above normal. Student absences are also up somewhat.

Students were scheduled to be out on Monday, which commemorates the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The schedule shift means they’ll now enjoy a five-day weekend, while teachers and staff must work from home as part of a “development” day on Friday. Teachers will get a day off Tuesday, while other staff assigned to work on Tuesday must work from home. Students will make up the missed two days by attending classes on Feb. 7 and April 25.

Mr. Jara and district officials, meanwhile, should be using the break to impose contingency plans for continued shortages, which could have been anticipated weeks ago. The emphasis must be on keeping school doors open while covering for the increasing number of teachers who are under the weather. At a minimum, they should be temporarily moving administrators into classrooms.

Rather than again closing schools district-wide, Mr. Jara and his team should address campuses that are overwhelmed with teacher absences on a case-by-case basis. The logistical challenges are real, but they are not insurmountable.

The damage of online learning was extensive and must not be repeated. Children are in very little danger from COVID-19, particularly the more mild omicron variant. It would be inexcusable malfeasance to allow a third school year to be significantly upended, as even “the science” has come to realize.

“Schools should be the first places to open and the last places to close,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky testified this week during a Senate hearing. District officials mustn’t waiver in their plan to reopen next week. And Ms. Walensky’s sage observation should carry the day going forward.

A previous version of this editorial incorrectly reported that Clark County School District teachers will work from home Tuesday.

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