Wakatipu High School will roster year levels to stay at home next week, as staff absences have outstripped available relieving teachers.
Principal Steve Hall said the rostering home strategy, in which one year group a day stays at home and completes independent study, allowing their normal teachers to cover other classes, had been confirmed for next week, but could well be extended.
Moving back to a remote learning model, where all staff and students were sent home, was a last resort, particularly given the number of parents and caregivers still going to work on a daily basis.
However, if staff absences outstripped rostering home’s ability to provide additional teaching coverage, there would be no other option, he said.
"I’m very mindful that we live in a community that’s had a consistently hard time out of Covid, so this is part of a plan to try to keep things as normal as possible."
Mr Hall said the high school had 91 teachers on its roster, some of whom taught five classes a day, but the number of absences changed several times a day.
"It changes during the day.
"It changes in the evening and it changes in the morning ... but the number of staff away and the number of classes that need to be covered has exceeded our capacity to cover them."
Pupils were also affected — yesterday of the 292 pupils absent, 147 were Covid-related absences.
"We really felt like we were hanging in there, but it has definitely ramped up in terms of students and staff this week," Mr Hall said.
"This week’s Southern District Health Board update said cases in the region have more than doubled in this last week, so we’re just reflecting what’s going on."
Meanwhile, Queenstown Lakes District Council chief executive Mike Theelen said the council was adapting its staffing and work arrangements to maintain service levels "as close to normal as possible".
The Omicron outbreak was putting a strain on some areas, particularly in sport and recreation, libraries and parks, and also council contractors.
Future options included reduced opening hours, changed access to different facilities at different times, and reduced frequency of some services.
