GREAT FALLS — Due to COVID, the first day of class for Chester-Joplin-Inverness (CJI) Schools has been postponed to Tuesday, Aug. 31. Classes had originally been scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Aug. 25.
District officials decided after a teacher tested positive at their training day on Monday that pushing their first day back would be the best option.
CJI Superintendent Tim Bronk said that the decision was made mainly due to the lack of substitute teachers and staffing.
“It would have been nearly impossible for substitutes, even if we did have them, to start a school year out for, you know, to get a school year up and running," Bronk said. "So it just made the most sense to just step back and make the right start to the year.”
Instead, the school opted to push back the date in hopes that all the teachers will be healthy and ready to tackle the school year next week.
“The soonest that those teachers who are in quarantine right now can test out of the quarantine would be seven days after exposure, which would be Monday afternoon, so we are hoping enough of them do so we can start Tuesday morning,” Bronk said.
