The Clark County School District announced a five-day pause period yesterday, due to staffing shortages related to COVID-19. 

Jan. 14 will replace the previously scheduled staff development day on April 25 and Jan. 18 will replace the contingency day on Feb. 7. Staff will work remotely on Jan 14.

 “I really don’t think having the five days off is going to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in our school at all,” freshman Aimee Davis said. “I think either we are going back online full-time or going to all get COVID-19 in school. I wouldn’t mind going back online, but it would suck to miss the rest of my freshman year, but I think it would be better for us all.”

With this unexpected pause, many teachers are now adjusting their lesson plans, but are hoping that the break will have a positive impact and reduce positive cases. 

“I think [the five day break] will help in the sense of getting staff back. I’m not going to say that it’s going to prevent the issue from spreading any further,” English 11 teacher Laura Penrod said. “If things are starting to progress in the right direction I think we will be able to come back, but it’s always going to be a staffing thing if we can’t keep staff in the building and they can’t figure out how to get these COVID-19 and Emocha lines more open.”

Staff who have tested positive, such as English 9 teacher Robert Davis, are utilizing online lessons through Canvas in order to keep instruction going at a steady pace and not minimize disruptions. 

“I’m feeling better each day, but I still have lingering effects of fatigue,” Davis said. “I was fortunate to receive a booster in early December so symptoms came quickly on Thursday and were pretty intense for three days before I started feeling better. I would say it affected me overall for five days.”

Throughout the past week, many classrooms had noticeable student absences. 

“We have never really seen this before, like entire groups and tables are gone,” sophomore Shaun Delos Reyes said. “It kind of worries me because it shows how easy [COVID-19] can spread. We have seen videos of how it spreads, but seeing the effects of Winter Break in person is scary.”

 The CCSD School Board will meet this Thursday to review the district’s distance and in-person education plan.

“I don’t think that the first line of instinct is to go online. But could it happen? Absolutely. I think teachers and students need to be hoping for the best and prepared for the worst kind of thing. I just think that students are unfortunately thinking ‘Oh, well if we go online, it’s going to be the rest of the year.’ I don’t think that’s the goal. I think if we did go online, it would be maybe through the end of the month reassessed.”