Antioch, Mt. Diablo and Pittsburg School Districts Deal With Absent Staff and Students

On Thursday, with schools reopening this week after winter break, they are now dealing with both staff and students being absent in Contra Costa County.

Here is a breakdown:

Antioch Unified School District

According to data provided by the District, they have a total of 440 staff who were absent—73 of those were teachers.

For students, the District has a 93% attendance rate on average. Prior to the day before the break, they were at 88%. The District said Thursday they were at 86% attendance which is approximately 325 students who were absent.

Mt. Diablo Unified School District

Superintendent Adam Clark stated they had 143 teacher absences in which 54 did not have substitute teachers—they had to cover the classes with other staff. As for students, they had approximately 2,400 student absences (Note – the district has approx. 28,000 total students)

According to Clark, some absences were due to positive COVID tests, some were due to family / household members who tested positive, some were sick or pre planned absences. Our number one priority is to maintain safe environments for students, staff and families.

“There are no plans to move to distance learning. We will continue to monitor our staffing each morning,” said Clark.

Pittsburg Unified School District

According to information provided by Superintendent Janet Schulze, they had 83 teachers absent noting its for all reasons, not just COVID-19. She said on average, its been that number each day this week. She also said that approximently 20% of the students were absent.  The District has just over 11,000 students.

Schulze also stated that having enough substituent teachers is an issue.

“Many are ill or on quarantine or are not accepting positions right now. For example, we had 44 teacher absences across the district today that we were not able to fill with district substitutes; this means we covered those classes with counselors, admin, other credentialed staff, combining classes, teachers covering during their prep periods.

The District recently increased their substitute teacher rates and are hiring–more info.

West Contra Costa Schools to Close for 2-Days Due to COVID-19

The West Contra Costa Unified School District announced it will keep all schools closed Friday and Monday due to staffing shortages and student illness.

According to the District Dashboard, they have 90 staff cases, 563 student cases and 55 classroom closures. King Elementary School is closed through January 14 due to COVID.

Contra Costa County COVID Data

According to Contra Costa Health Services, the county is at 1,338 average new case each day and 123 people are hospitalized. The County says 78.5% are vaccinated.