Talawanda School District cancels classes due to illness, sub shortage

(OXFORD, Ohio)

Talawanda School District announced Sunday evening that schools will be closed Monday and Tuesday due to illness.

According to Talawanda Schools’ Director of Communication Holli Hansel, both students and staff have been getting sick at a high rate.

In addition, the schools are unable to find enough substitutes to fill in for sick teachers.

This is the fourth school district in the Tri-State area that reported its schools will be closed due to sick students and staff this fall.

Earlier this month, Lynchburg-Clay Local Schools, Williamstown Independent Schools and Lockland Local Schools all closed down for a few days due to a rapid spread of illnesses in their schools.

Lynchburg-Clay Schools had 90 students and several staff members call in sick at the beginning of November.

Cincinnati Children’s Medical Director of Infectious Diseases Elizabeth Schlaudecker says that the flu and RSV are impacting schools across the nation.

“We started to see some of the summer respiratory viruses back in September, and then respiratory syncytial virus or RSV started to pick up in October,” Schlaudecker said.

Hansel did not mention what the exact illness was that made the district shut down for the next few days.