RIO VISTA, Texas — A North Texas school district is closing its doors for two days this week due to a lack of staffing caused by COVID-19, officials said Sunday.
In a letter to parents and staff, officials with Rio Vista ISD said the district held a testing site for staff on Sunday. According to the district, the testing results and the lack of substitute teachers needed to cover staff members who will need to be out led to the decision to cancel classes for Monday, Jan. 10, and Tuesday, Jan, 11.
Rio Vista is located in Johnson County, about eight miles south of Cleburne.
According to data from Rio Vista ISD's COVID-19 dashboard, the district has 136 staff members across three schools. Of those 136 staff members, 30 of them have confirmed cases of COVID-19, which is about 22% of the staff, according to the data that was last updated at 7:53 p.m. Sunday.
The data also showed that 19 students out of 829 had confirmed cases, as well.
The district also said in the letter that a testing site will be set up on Tuesday, Jan. 11, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for both students and staff at Rio Vista Middle School. The school buildings will also be deep cleaned over the next two days, according to the district.
Last week, other North Texas school districts were seeing a shortage of substitute teachers as COVID-19 cases surged since students and staff returned to classes following holiday break.
Grapevine-Colleyville ISD and Dallas ISD told WFAA on Friday that they had approved pay incentives for substitutes as they address the shortage.