The school year is off to a slow start in a western Michigan district due to power outages, faulty batteries and students with flu-like symptoms.
The Baldwin district in Lake County called off classes for Wednesday and Thursday and told students to return Sept. 7. Schools were already closed Friday ahead of the holiday weekend.
“The state requires that we have 75% of attendance across the entire district,” interim Superintendent J. Mark Parsons told 9and10news.com. “We were not making that threshold.”
Most flu-like symptoms were in the elementary school. Parsons canceled classes on two days last week, too.
Online learning is not an immediate option. The batteries used in internet hot spots were recalled. New ones have been ordered.
“Over 80% of our students do not have internet at home,” Parsons said. “The only way they could do it virtually was to create hot spots.”