Coronavirus in rural America (Part CXLV): rural Texas school districts shutting down for a week or two

Here's the story from the Dallas Morning News today:  

On Monday, Iraan-Sheffield ISD, a district about 80 miles south of Midland, announced it would shut down its three campuses starting Tuesday, keeping its 338 students home until Aug. 30.

Iraan started school on Aug. 10.

“This decision was made to ensure the safety of our students and staff, as well as to make certain that we have appropriate staff available for each campus,” Superintendent Tracy Canter wrote in a letter to parents Monday afternoon.

No virtual or remote learning will be made available at this time, Canter wrote, although the district was working with the Texas Education Agency on alternative plans.

She also pleaded with staff and students to stay in quarantine over the two-week break.

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Bloomburg and Waskom ISDs — two small districts in East Texas on the borders of Arkansas and Louisiana, respectively — told families on Sunday that they would not hold classes this week at some of their campuses.

A Facebook post from administrators from Bloomburg, a 250-student district about 30 miles south of Texarkana, said the district would close starting Monday through Aug. 20.

“We feel this is the best decision to protect our students, staff and community during this time,” the post said.

In related news, the Texas Supreme Court on Sunday upheld Governor Abbott's ban on mask mandates after at least one trial court had struck down the governor's order.   

In Arkansas, the Marion school district near West Memphis, which started classes in July to get ahead of possible closures due to outbreaks, had 1000 students and staff in quarantine by last week.  While many Arkansas schools have imposed mask mandates after an Arkansas trial judge struck the state's ban on such mandates, most of those schools have been large districts in urban areas.  That said, I note that the West Fork school district, exurban to Fayetteville (now the state's second largest city after the 2020 Census), tonight reversed its earlier decision and is imposing a mask mandate temporarily.  Elkins, another exurban/rural school district near Fayetteville, is separating masked and unmasked students within each classroom.  But it seems that most school boards that have considered what to do are requiring masks.  Still, many, many rural Arkansas districts have not yet taken up the issue.