Despite the historically closing down of 32 schools across the State due to sickness, The Cumberland County school system remains open and is aggressively fighting a highly contagious flu.  Many parents locally are keeping their child home either with the flu or wanting to prevent them from getting the flu.  We have been asked by many of our readers to find out if Cumberland County Schools plan to close with many children already fighting the virus.

 CNF spoke with Cumberland County Central Services office today and was told attendance was at 90% today which is down from Thursday’s  91.6% and even lower from the  93% attendance rate on Tuesday.

Director of Schools Janet Graham said in a previous interview with the Chronicle this week “We will continue to monitor closely each day’s attendance.”  Give that Ms. Graham spoke about a percentage of absenteeism indicating that might the measuring tool for closing the school, CNF  asked Central Services what percentage of children would have to be out for the schools to close.  We were advised there is no set absentee percentage number assigned to close Cumberland County Schools and that it is a group decision between the attendants, principals, nurses, teachers and the DOS as to whether schools remain open.  There is no current plan to close schools next week.

We can only assume the ‘decision-makers’ do not feel there are enough kids absent with the flu and the ones in school with sickness are posing no threat to the other students.

We understand custodians are continuously cleaning surfaces where children may be exposed to the virus.

Below is a map of the schools that were closed today (Friday) for sickness along with a list of the ones to be closed next week.

UPDATED AS OF 8:25 AM CST/9:25 AM EST JANUARY 31

Current Tennessee City/County School Closings for FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 2020

Systems highlighted in BLUE are CLOSED