GALLATIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — Sumner County Schools announced it will be closed next week to “help mitigate the community spread of COVID-19 among students and staff.”
The district will close from Sept. 7 to Sept. 10 and will resume normal operations on Sept. 13, school officials announced Wednesday.
Sumner County Schools said there will be no instruction via GoogleClassroom on those days, meaning they will use some of their inclement weather days. Extracurricular activities, including athletic games and practices, will continue, but the district said those events must occur after normal school dismissal time.
“We encourage everyone to practice safe, healthy measures during this break to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 within our community,” the district said in part.
Last week, Wilson County Schools and Rutherford County Schools announced COVID-related closures for this week.
Earlier this week, Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn outlined the state’s plan to temporarily transition some students/teachers to remote learning if they need to quarantine or isolate due to COVID.
However, such waivers cannot be used at the district-wide level. Schwinn said the waivers consist of specific, individual requests at the classroom or school level, calling it “short term relief” for this current surge.
According to new data from the Tennessee Department of Health, there are now more people hospitalized in Tennessee with COVID-19 than at any other time in the pandemic. The latest numbers also includes 73 pediatric patients, 18 of whom are in ICUs and seven on ventilators.
