A few East Tennessee schools, including Roane County Schools, have decided to close for the next few days due to illness. The school districts report many absences the past few weeks including teachers and staff being out due to sickness, most related to the flu outbreak.

Roane County,  Alcoa City, Knox County and Monroe County schools will be closed Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 5-6. The STARS program in the City of Alcoa will also closed those days. Officials said staff will be cleaning the schools those days.  Loudon County, Lenoir City, Union County, McMinn County, and Newport Grammar School which were closed Friday will remain closed Monday.

“The doctors in town thought it was best to close school for four days to let the kids and the teachers get over the illness,” Mike Sims, supervisor of support personnel at Lenoir City Schools, said.

Sims said the decision to close school for four days came down to low attendance numbers, with many students out sick with the flu or a stomach virus. Even more troubling to operations, schools had several unhealthy teachers and not enough substitutes.

As the students and educators rest up at home, custodians are busy at work cleaning the schools from top to bottom.