Ann Arbor Public Schools superintendent responds to building closures due to staff shortages

By Stone Andrews Last updated Oct 26, 2021

ANN ARBOR – Ann Arbor Public Schools Superintendent Jeanice Swift released a statement Monday afternoon in response to the recent closure of several school buildings due to staff shortages.

Last week, one elementary school, one K-8 school, and two high schools were removed for a day due to the inability to occupy the buildings, Swift told the AAPS community via email.

On Monday morning, the A2STEAM parents were informed one hour before the start of school that all classes would be switched to distance learning for the day.

See the full statement from Swift below:

We all understand the great challenge for students, employees and families when we get into the very difficult situation of not adequately staffing a school building and safely opening our doors for personal learning every day of the school year.

We are currently working to better understand the details of the staffing challenges that contributed to the two days – last Friday October 22nd and Monday October 25th – when we were unable to fully occupy certain school buildings in order to ensure a safe opening of school-based learning and, as a result, have been forced to convert some schools to distance learning.

We will be sharing more information with our community in the coming days, including the steps we will identify to address this situation over this time.

AAPS held several virtual job fairs for numerous positions across the district this year to fill in the gaps. According to Swift, illness and staff absences – which were sometimes announced at the last minute – contributed to the decision to hold all-virtual days.