School officials take extra measures after increasing numbers of illness

HAZARD, Ky. (WYMT) - Schools throughout the region are dealing with illness.

In Perry County, the district functioned on NTI Days for Thursday and Friday.

CFO of Perry County Schools Jody Maggard says the district has seen a decreased number in attendance due to sickness.

“If you ask the building principals, if you talk to school staff, if you talk to medical professionals, a lot of people are getting sick. And so we just took the opportunity to take a couple of days off and make it a four day weekend to see if we could get through this little spell and come back Monday ready to go,” he said.

He says officials are working over the weekend to sanitize the school.

Instructional Supervisor Josh Baker says they are working to protect substitute teachers.

He said, “with the sickness, it is always tougher because a lot of our subs are retired teachers, or they may have health concerns for themselves, or they may be sick themselves.”

He also added that there are only so many substitutes that can be at a single school at once.

With a limited number of substitutes and increasing levels of sickness, district officials decided to transition to NTI days to keep everyone safe.

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