Culver Community Schools closed Monday due to a shortage of staff and subsitutes

 

CULVER, Ind. -- Superintendent Karen Shuman, making the choice to close Culver Community Schools on Monday. 

“Typically we can kind of roll and adjust, but we were not able to roll and adjust this time,” she said. 

There was simply not enough staff-- with five teachers, two bus drivers and two cafeteria staff members out either for testing positive for COVID-19 or quarantining. 

Other staff members were not able to come in because of personal reasons, which the school was aware of, and there were just not enough substitutes to cover for everyone. 

“We have probably about thirty that we have signed up, but they’re not available every day,” said Shuman.

Meaning the over eight-hundred students who would normally be in school on a Monday, spent their days at home e-learning.

According to Shuman: “It was a two-hour discussion trying to make this decision last night, between me and the admin teams, of ‘what else is going on tomorrow if we close? Who does it impact?’ We know it impacts families and we do not want to impact our families; we want to be there for them. But in the grand scheme of it, it was better to do this, to go virtual.”

The school gave a two-hour delay so that teachers, students and parents could adequately prepare for the sudden change. 

Despite this, the school is hoping to be open tomorrow, but Shuman warns that anything can happen.

“Tonight—there could be something else that multiplies and messes up the plans that we have in place tomorrow, but we hope we are able to get back in session,” she said. 

According to Shuman, people are stepping up to make sure class is in session-- they have two substitute bus drivers filling in to pick up students, and have rearranged bus routes accordingly. Shuman also says they have some aides that will be able to fill in for teachers, as well as four new substitute teacher applicants. 

Anyone interested in apply for a substitute position can apply here: http://www.generalasp.com/culver/onlineapp/default.aspx?Category=Substitute