By : Gianna Long

Recently students at Spring Valley have noticed a decrease in the amount of students they have in each of their classes. Almost all of these kids have been put on quarantine leave due to the widespread of the new Covid variant, Omicron. 

Lately students and parents have received numerous emails about the recent Covid cases that have occurred within the school. There have been more cases than ever before being reported due to the fast spread of the Omicron variant and how easy it is to get it. 

While not every student has been out due to being sick, some have been out due to their parents keeping them home out of precaution for their health. 

“My mom struggles with a lot of health issues, during the whole time of Covid, we’ve never gotten it because we’ve been really careful. My mom did and still does not agree with us being back at school physically or not being provided an online option due to Covid being at its peak right now.” Sophomore Nevaeh Racut said, “However the school wasn’t as understanding of the situation as they should have been. Personally I think the district or school should allow an online option for those who feel they need it especially since covid is at its peak.”

Regardless of the situation for staying home, classroom sizes have been down tremendously. With some classes being only half the size it normally is.

Not only have students been the one out but teachers as well. With a rise of absent teachers, many substitutes have been needed in the classrooms. However with the high demand of substitutes there have been issues trying to find one for every teacher, causing other teachers within the school to give up their prep period to help.

Clark County School District had set in place a 5 day pause in order to allow students and teachers to have a few days off in order to recoup and come back ready. This pause had allowed many students and teachers to return on the following Wednesday, with an improvement of how many people were coming to school now.

Regardless of the pause, that still will not stop anyone from getting sick, but it has definitely helped with the attendance shortages that Spring Valley and many other schools in the district were facing. Due to vast amounts of students and even teachers the school district had to provide parents with another hotline in order to call about their child receiving the news of having covid. If the new hotline it is a submission now and is COVID-19 Parent/Guardian Hotline Submission. Parents are asked to use this form if the hotline is not able to be reached.