According to a notice from Anselmo-Merna Public Schools, the district will cancel school Thursday (1/27/22), and Friday (1/28/22) as illness has impacted both the students and staff. A-M Superintendent Dr. Logan Lightfoot said the illnesses have included Influenza A, COVID-19, as well as other viruses.

During this time, the custodial crew will be deep cleaning and disinfecting classrooms and common areas.

“It’s never easy to cancel school for any of our kids. In a lot of ways, school is the best place our kids can be and our staff can be,” said Dr. Lightfoot. “We felt the most responsible thing to do was to close school for the next two days and allow some of this illness to go through and allow our kids a fresh start on Monday and hopefully be a lot more healthy.”

On Wednesday, 75 students pre-K through 12th grade were absent which accounts for approximately 30% of the student population.

Extra-curricular activities will still continue as scheduled.  As a result of the cancelation of school, the Mid-Nebraska Activities Conference consolations games that were scheduled to be played at A-M have been moved to Stapleton High School.

In regards to extra-curricular activities, Dr. Lightfoot said there was a lot of discussion with the leadership team if they would allow healthy students to continue to participate.

“We didn’t want to punish our student participants who were not ill,” said Dr. Lightfoot. “We also didn’t want to punish any of the other member schools and in the end, we feel like we are not putting anyone else at additional risk if we continue to participate.”

Dr. Lightfoot encouraged those who have ill students who are supposed to participate in one of these activities, to keep them home.

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Originally Appeared Here