Antioch Unified School District Cancels Class Due to Unhealthy Air Quality

The Antioch Unified School District has announced they are closing the District down on Thursday due to extreme poor air quality due to the recent fires in the north Bay.

CALFIRE stated as of 4:30 pm, 3,500 homes and structures have burned, 21 people have been killed with 20,000+ people being evacuated with more than 170,000 acres burned.

“It was a difficult decision, but ultimately I would rather side on the protection of the health of our students and staff,” said Superintendent Stephanie Anello. “Although the fires are a distance away, drift smoke has entered our area and its anticipated to be worse tomorrow.”

The move was to prevent a mid-day interruption depending on air quality and health issues that could result from unhealthy air.

Here is a copy of the auto dialer that went out around 5:00 pm:

“This is an important safety announcement from the Antioch Unified School District. Given the extreme poor air quality due to the recent, ongoing wildfires, Schools will be closed tomorrow. Please know that your child’s safety was the primary factor leading to this decision. Many of our students walk or ride their bike to and from school and will be exposed to the poor air quality even if we were to remain open and shelter in place as we did today. Currently, it is being reported that only three percent of the fires have been contained. Thus, we expect that the air quality will be even more dangerous tomorrow. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you but, again, your child’s safety is our number one concern. At this point school is only closed Thursday, but pending the containment of the fires, we ask that you make a short term plan for your children should we need to close schools on Friday. We will be in contact with you as soon as possible should that be necessary.

Thank you, as always, for your continued support of our schools and our District as we work to ensure your child’s health is not compromised in any way.”