Five counties close schools for at least a week

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Five Northeast Tennessee school systems will remain out at least through Oct. 4, their leaders announced Sunday. Additionally, Elizabethton City Schools and most colleges and universities are closed for at least part of the week.

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Johnson, Carter, Unicoi, Greene and Washington counties — all of which received devastating flood impacts Friday — will be out at least Monday through Friday.

East Tennessee State University’s classes are canceled through Wednesday, and Tusculum University will hold all classes online through at least Oct. 15. Milligan and Emory & Henry universities and TCAT-Elizabethton’s campuses won’t have classes on Monday.

Elizabethton Schools will remain closed through Wednesday. Elizabethton High School is serving as a command center for flood relief efforts.

All the decisions are subject to extension depending on circumstances, and at least two school superintendents made it clear students could be out for even longer.

Unicoi County was entering its pre-scheduled fall break Monday, but Superintendent John English said he wasn’t sure at this point whether classes would resume Monday, Oct. 7 in the extremely hard-hit county.

“I would say it’s unlikely we’ll be ready a week from tomorrow to resume school, but we would want our students to know that they are our priority and we want to get back in front of them as soon as we possibly can and we look forward to that,” during a Sunday morning news conference.

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English said many schools are being utilized as command centers and shelters. He said getting students back in the classroom will be “a process, and there’ll be a lot of factors that go into that in terms of accessibility and power.”

Johnson County Superintendent Mischelle Simcox said she’ll meet with the county’s road superintendent and sheriff late this week to reassess the current one-week closure.

“The safety of our students and our citizens is our top priority,” she told News Channel 11.

Greene County has a fall break starting Oct. 7. Superintendent David McClain said that with the disruption of water service, a longer hiatus remains possible. He said the destruction of the main bridge by which many students reach Chuckey-Doak High School and Chuckey Elementary will complicate transportation to those two schools indefinitely.

This is a developing story.

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