The Overton County Schools will be closed Thursday and Friday due to illness.
Director of Schools Mark Winningham said stockpiled snow days will make up for lost days.
“We’ve experienced a very high number of student absences throughout this week and it has continued to increase each day so we made the decision to close the next two days and we will have Monday as well,” Winningham said. “So hopefully we’ll have a long enough period of time that this will run its course and we can come back to school on Tuesday and it’ll be back to normal.”
Winningham described the number of absences as irregular and said a variety of illnesses affected both students and faculty.
“We’ve got an extraordinary number of students who are ill with flu, pneumonia, stomach virus. And we have a very high number of staff that are as well,” Winningham said.
Flu activity has reached a critical state in Tennessee, according to health officials. Livingston Regional Hospital reported having an average number of flu cases for the season, with 29 since November. However, local clinics in the area have treated a higher number of cases.
This marks the first time Overton County schools have closed county wide for illnesses this year.
