COVID, Staff Shortages Drive Waitsburg Students Back to Distance Learning

The announcement came Wednesday afternoon.

WAITSBURG TO DROP TO ALL DISTANCE LEARNING 

Waitsburg, which is 13 miles from Dayton and 31 miles northeast of Walla Walla, announced they will be returning to distance learning after issues arose from COVID cases and staff shortages.

From a release sent out by the District:

"All campuses closed. Effective Thursday, January 27th, ALL Waitsburg students (preschool -- 12th grade) are transitioning to remote learning due to increased COVID cases and staff shortages."

The school district issued the following statement as part of an update on their website:

"Unfortunately, the sharp increase in COVID cases throughout our community and number of staff out sick makes this move to remote learning necessary. We will continue to watch our local COVID numbers, staffing, and student absences over the next few days and provide an update with next steps by early afternoon on Monday, January 31. We hope to be able to resume in-person classes by Tuesday, February 1, but will need to see what the numbers show."

The school co-ops with Dayton for athletics as part of the Eastern WA Athletic Conference, along with such schools as Columbia Burbank, Riverview Finley, and others. It is not known if this will affect extra-curricular activities.

Waitsburg is the first district in our region we are aware of that has transitioned back to remote learning due to these issues.