NEED TO KNOW
- A Kansas school district has released all students and staff for their winter break earlier than usual
- Officials at Dexter Schools USD #471 cited illnesses rapidly spreading as the deciding factor
- “We had staff that was not only throwing up, but had diarrhea,” the school principal said
A Kansas school is hoping to get ahead of cold and flu season by dismissing students and staff earlier than usual for winter break in order to stop the spread of sickness at a “high rate.”
On Monday, Dec. 15, Dexter Schools USD #471 abruptly announced classes would come to an end for the semester and pick back up in the new year.
“We are going through a tremendous amount of sickness right now and it seems to be spreading at a very high rate. Due to a high number of students and staff illnesses and the rate at which it continues to climb we will be dismissing for the semester at the end of the day today, Monday, December 15, 2025,” school officials told parents in a post shared to Facebook.
Scheduled activities, such as extra curricular competitions and holiday parties, will be postponed until the following semester or cancelled altogether, the district said.
“Not only are we concerned with student and staff sickness now we don’t want to continue to spread the sickness and end up with students taking it to their extended families (grandma and grandpa) over the holiday break,” the statement continued.
The district’s winter break was originally scheduled to begin on Dec. 22.
K.B. Criss, the Dexter school’s superintendent and principal, spoke to ABC News about the fast growing number of illnesses among students and teachers, saying that out of approximately 300 students, around 25% to 35% of them were absent within the first hour of school when classes started Monday morning.
“The phone was ringing off the wall of kids being sick,” he said. “I think by nine o’clock, we had between 40 and 50 families call, and that’s a large percent of our student body.”
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
Criss also described the symptoms that students and teachers are experiencing. “We had staff that was not only throwing up, but had diarrhea. We had body aches, fevers, bronchitis, strep throat, and the one common thing with all of it was terrible headaches,” the superintendent and principal said, adding that other leading symptoms included congestion, coughs and fever.
On the Dexter Schools USD #471’s homepage, the school said free testing for Flu A/B, RSV, Strep A and COVID would be made available.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
PEOPLE reached out to the Dexter Schools USD #471 nurse for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
“We appreciate your understanding as we work to keep our students, staff, and school community healthy. Thank you for your continued support of USD #471 Dexter Schools. Have a great Holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone back and healthy at the start of the 2nd semester on Monday, January 5, 2026,” the Facebook statement concluded.
In a follow-up post on Tuesday, Dec. 16, the school promised that “Christmas is NOT CANCELLED in PK3-6th grade,” adding that it would instead be celebrated on Jan. 5 “with our regularly scheduled Christmas parties and pajama day!”
Read the full article here
