CLEVELAND COUNTY, Ark. — The Arkansas Department of Health reported 7.5% of students missed class last week.
According to ADH, the Natural State is at the height of a severe flu season and the Cleveland County School District is feeling the impact.
On Wednesday, the school district sent out a letter to parents stating the district would be using AMI days on Thursday and Friday.
This came after school leaders noticed a significant spike in the number of positive flu cases in the district.
Classrooms were empty on Thursday because teachers and custodial staff spend the day cleaning and disinfecting the schools with hopes of breaking the strain.
"In the five years I've been here, we have never had the number of absences due to flu that we've seen in the last few days," Cleveland County School District Superintendent Craig Dupuy said.
Dupuy said that 22 staff members, 54 high school students and 86 elementary students were reported absent with the flu as of Dec. 7.
He began to notice an uptick on Monday.
"Several staff members had called in sick already and there was a pretty good line of students at the nurse's station," Dupuy said.
The increase in positive cases in their schools isn't the only challenge.
Davy King, who is the principal of Rison High School, said the flu outbreak within the school district has made it hard to find substitute teachers.
"We're already dealing with a low... minimum amount of subs as it is," King said.
King said teachers combined classes to help with the supervision of students, but eventually, school leaders needed a different plan.
"Our staff has been hit really hard," King said. "Making it difficult for us to provide supervision and continue on instruction with our students."
Ultimately, Dupuy decided closing the school is the best decision in order to keep students in staff safe before returning on Dec. 12.
"It's not an easy choice and I know that it's hard on parents to arrange for babysitters," Dupuy said. "We did not want to get into a situation where we were having to put large groups of students together... Hopefully, 72 hours gives us a chance to kind of get a handle on things."
Here is the latest data on school absenteeism from the Arkansas Department of Health:
