A Central Texas school district closes schools after the death of two COVID-19 teachers last week
WACO, Texas – A Central Texas school district closed its schools until after Labor Day holidays after the deaths of two COVID-19 teachers.
Connally Independent School District officials closed Waco’s five suburban schools the rest of the week after the death of Saturday’s COVID-19 of Natalia Chansler, 41, a sixth-grade social studies teacher at Connally Junior High School. said Deputy Superintendent Jill Bottelberghe.
Chansler’s death came days after David McCormick, 59, a seventh-grade social studies professor at Connally Junior High, died of COVID-19, Bottelberghe said.
It was not immediately known whether either teacher was vaccinated.
Connally High School football coach Terry Gerik says the cadets will play La Vega as scheduled Friday night.
The school has had 51 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since classes began on Aug. 18, Bottelberghe said Monday. He added that more cases had been confirmed in recent days, but did not know if there were any that went back directly to Chansler.
“We found no correlation” between the two deaths, Bottelberghe said. “They had two different grade levels even though they worked under the same content area, but we recognized that there has been an increase in dissemination across the territory. Our students at those two grade levels.”
In an email Monday, Superintendent Wesley Holt said the hope “is that the closing and holiday break will provide those who are positive with the virus or who are exposed to other people with the virus, time to isolate and recover. This closure will also allow time for deep cleaning and sanitation of all CISD facilities. “
The seven-day average of nine daily COVID-19 cases in Texas was 15,400 cases as of Sunday, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The average of seven days of daily deaths from COVID-19 in Texas was 200 per day.