San Antonio Standard

South Texas school district Runge Independent School District (RISD) temporarily closed due to multiple staff members testing positive for COVID-19, with the closure occurring around two weeks after the school year began, according to a report. The closure was reported on Aug. 21, and classes are set to resume on Aug. 29.

Around 10 employees, roughly 23% of the staff, had active cases, and Superintendent Hector Dominguez also tested positive for COVID-19.

“The safety and well-being of our students, staff and community is a top priority,” Dominguez said. 

Dominguez highlighted the district's limited resources compared to larger ones in explaining the closure due to COVID-19 cases. Extracurricular activities were canceled, and the district, operating on a four-day school week, prioritized safety by sanitizing buildings. 

A study conducted in October 2022 by economist and Brown professor Emily Oster unveiled a concerning trend linking reduced access to full in-person instruction during the 2020-2021 school year with a significant drop in average math scores across most states. The research, based on the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data, commonly referred to as "The Nation's Report Card," illuminated the stark learning loss in math and reading among public school students since 2019. The study's findings showcased declines in fourth-grade math proficiency in 43 states and all four census-defined regions of the country, while eighth-grade math scores slumped across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., marking the largest number of states to experience such a decline since 2003.

In July, Stanford University’s Cathrine Axfors and John Ioannidis published their estimate that the survivability of infected under-20s is 99.999%, falling to 99.958% for the under-50s.