DECATUR -- For students at Northside Elementary, Decatur Middle School and Decatur High School, in-house learning was suspended for two days last week, on Thursday and Friday. Students returned to on-campus instruction on Monday.
The cancellation of sporting events last week also became necessary due to the covid-19 outbreak -- some because of the outbreak at the schools of opposing teams.
This is not the first time the Decatur School District shut down in-house classes due to illness.
Prior to the covid-19 outbreak in March 2020, the district was forced to close for three days in early 2019 due to a serious outbreak of the flu that took out a third of the teaching staff and students.
Because of the three days off, the number of flu infections dropped dramatically.
However, the students lost three days of learning and had to go extra days in May of that year to make up for the lost time.
Online learning did not exist in its present form at the time.
Athletic director Jacque Smith worked diligently early in the week to work out a basketball
schedule that would work in all the contests that were missed.
Following is the current schedule of games for the week of Jan. 24, but, with covid-19 and the weather big factors, changes could become necessary:
01/24 -- Decatur@ Colcord, Okla, 4 p.m, junior high boys and girls only.
01/25 -- Decatur@Life Way Christian in Centerton, 5 p.m, 1,2,3,4.
01/26 -- Eureka Springs@Decatur, 5 p.m, 1,3,4.
01/27 -- Decatur@Cotter, 5 p.m, 2,3,4.
01/28 -- Decatur@Arts Academy in Rogers, 5 p.m, 1,3,4
01/29 -- Decatur@Alpena, 10 a.m, 2,3,4
(1-Junior High Girls, 2-Junior High Boys, 3-Senior Girls, 4-Senior Boys)
Go to decatursd.com for any changes to the basketball schedule or on-campus instruction.