The new Omicron strand of Covid-19 has truly taken the world by storm. This variant has globally affected schools, especially education systems in the Clark County District. The school district is taking a 3-day weekend along with an extra 2 days of pause to figure out how they are going to prepare for the rest of the spring semester. 

CCSD President Irene Cepeda has just joined the board a few weeks prior to the Covid cases rising. Many parents and students are skeptical as to how CCSD is handling all of the Covid outbreaks and the lack of staff and administration stretched throughout the valley, and that if this continues we all might end up going online full time just like the original lockdown of March 2020.

This has also significantly affected Faith Lutheran and their staff. As of the past couple of weeks following Christmas break, several teachers and administrators have either contracted Omicron or have at least come in contact with someone that has caught the virus. 

When people think of schools and Covid one of many’s first concerns are their kids and other students; wondering how they will be able to handle it. Adrian Monceau has a strong opinion on CCSD shutting down their schools for the weekend. “I think temporary leave was smart for like a few days, cause Covid cases but permanently though? I don’t think that would’ve been bad, so I’m glad they did it for a short span of time.” 

Adrian said he thinks it’s a rather helpful solution because “it prepares us for the similar event that could come again in the future and it just you know instead of creating like the whole chaos thing again, it just makes things organized for both future students and teachers.” Although he does believe that it was a good idea, he believes that it is actually going to be a one time thing, “ I don’t think we’re going to shut down, because we have a more organized system than before and we’d like know how to prepare for something like a potential increase in cases as of compared to like before.” Many students including Adrian seem to be hopeful about schools staying open, and a call like this not having to be made again.

Mr. Chilman, a counselor at Faith Lutheran expressed his opinion on CCSD shutting down and what he believes our next steps should be, “I believe it was necessary because of staffing issues not because of Covid. I do believe that it is a good reset button.”

 Chilman also addresses the issues with our own faith family and how they’re dealing with Covid by saying, “ As for our teachers and staff I believed it was a great idea and if it ever comes down to it Faith would go to that as a first resort.” 

Although this comment may bring us some peace of mind, many wonder how this all will play out in the long run and whether or not we will have a repeat of 2020. Mr. Chilman acknowledges others doubts but tries to ease Faith families by saying, “it’s impossible to answer that question, we won’t know if there will be enough staff to handle that; stats show that students learn better in person and if that were to happen we would start asynchronous learning where the teachers will provide assignments and say ‘see you tomorrow’.”

CCSD is working hard to communicate with schools, families, and especially students. For more information on upcoming events or announcements visit https://www.ccsd.net/ .