School closed Monday due to staff illnesses

WAUSA – Wausa Public Schools canceled classes Monday, Jan. 17, because of staff illnesses.

The school district posted Sunday, Jan. 16, on its website and Facebook a request that parents do not send their students to school on Monday.

“Unfortunately, the school is not able to adequately staff the building and classrooms due to the number of illnesses,” according to the school district’s message. “We hope everyone gets well soon.”

When reached by phone Monday, Superintendent Brad Hoesing noted he and 5-12 principal Shane Anderson knew by about 2:30-3 p.m. Sunday they had to cancel classes for Monday.

“Today was a good day to get everyone healthy and get them back in school,” Hoesing said, noting the school district had spare snow days to use.

Hoesing did not reveal how many staff members out of the school district’s 23 teachers and six paraprofessionals were out with sickness.

However, he did say the staff members who were not able to be at school Monday were a combination of teachers and paraprofessionals who were either ill themselves or had sick children to take care of at home.

Hoesing also said the school did not have enough substitute teachers to cover for the staff members who were unable to be in the building Monday.

He emphasized that COVID-19 was not the primary cause of the staff illnesses, though he noted one teacher was absent Monday due to coronavirus.

“As far as I’m aware, it was the plain old flu,” Hoesing said. “It’s hitting everybody.”

He said the school has so far avoided an outbreak of positive COVID-19 cases, though it has had occasional ones pop up from time to time.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate,” Hoesing said. “We’ll be in good shape.”

He mentioned the staff illnesses at Monday’s School Board meeting Monday evening and told board members classes were scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 18, and they did happen.

“It might be day by day, to just be blunt with you, on where we’re at as far as staffing,” Hoesing said. “Hopefully - knock on wood - we’re good, but just to give you a heads-up, that might be day by day.”

Anderson noted one staff member who was absent on Monday was supposed to be back on Tuesday, while the rest of the staff members who were gone from school planned to be back Wednesday, Jan. 19.

“We just weren’t quite sure how many subs we could find or how many teachers would be able to work,” he said. “Hopefully - knock on wood - we kind of went through our stretch of the bad times and we can get back to work.”