By Sam Parsons

The Melcher-Dallas School District announced yesterday that school would be closed Thursday and Friday of this week.

The district is citing a high rate of absences due to illness. They released this statement explaining the situation:

“Melcher-Dallas Schools are currently experiencing a high rate of student absenteeism due illness. 23% of the students at the JH/HS are out sick, and 15% of the students at the elementary are out sick. We have been doing additional cleaning and disinfecting, but the numbers continue to rise. Today, the number of students absent from the elementary doubled. We are also experiencing staffing shortage due to illness. Therefore, we have decided to cancel school on Thursday, December 15th and Friday, December 16th. We hope the long weekend will have a positive impact and we can break the cycle and stop the spread of these illnesses. Our custodial staff will deep clean the buildings over the next two days. The varsity level sports will still have games Thursday and Friday. Junior Varsity and Junior practices are canceled.”

In the time since this statement was released, it was announced that Melcher-Dallas’ scheduled basketball games against Twin Cedars have been postponed. The make-up date is January 31, 2023.