Midlothian ISD Closing Schools Friday Due To Traveling Staff, Not Enough Substitutes

MIDLOTHIAN, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - A mass exodus to attend student performances across Texas and a lack of substitute teachers to cover classrooms, has led Midlothian ISD to close schools Friday, Nov. 19.

In a statement Monday, Nov. 15, the school district explained:

"Midlothian ISD will not have enough substitutes to cover classrooms that will be left vacant by staff that will be traveling across the state for student performances in athletics and fine arts at both our comprehensive high schools. We have an incredible 18 programs traveling and most will be leaving as early as noon. The MISD staffing model utilizes a great number of teachers from our elementary and middle school campuses for our high school student organizations and this will leave a void in coverage at those campuses as well. Asa result of our students traveling this will place an incredible burden on our transportation system and we will be miming quite a few buses from our fleet for normal operations. It is for these reasons that we have decided to cancel school for students and staff on Friday."

Students will not have to make the day up because the district has enough minutes built into the calendar.

As for parents having to figure out childcare on short notice, MISD said the YMCA is offering childcare for ages 5 to 12 on Friday at JR Irvin Elementary from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for MISD families.

The cost is $35 for the day and parents will need to provide lunch for their children.

MISD said a link will be sent out Tuesday for families to sign up for this service.

This will be a first-come, first-serve offering with a 20-student minimum to occur.

On Tuesday, Midlothian ISD went into more detail on the events taking place across the state:

Both high school football teams are in Area Championship rounds which involve band, drill teams, and cheer programs from both of our comprehensive high schools. Both high schools have girls basketball teams competing in tournaments and single games on multiple levels (9th, JV, and Varsity), MHS Boys Basketball has a 9th-grade tournament and a varsity tournament, Both MHS and HHS theatre groups are attending Texas Thespian Festival, Both high school swim teams have meets, MHS has a golf tournament to attend, and both high schools have wrestling matches they are attending. These events take place from Abilene to Canyon to Texarkana and all over the DFW area.

With regard to not having enough substitute teachers, MISD said Tuesday, it "is committed to recruiting and training substitute teachers as quickly as possible to grow our substitute teacher numbers. The district runs frequent onboarding sessions for substitute teachers. In fact, we have one tomorrow. Prior to the pandemic, MISD filled substitute positions at a rate of 90% and since the pandemic we have not recovered and we fill sub positions at a rate at about 70% on normal days. As this coming Friday is the day before a holiday week, the district anticipates that we would see a much lower percentage filled."