BATON ROUGE - East Baton Rouge school officials say there was no significant increase in employee absences Wednesday, the day of a "sick-out" organized by teachers in response to surging coronavirus cases on school campuses. 

The East Baton Rouge School Parish School System reported 760 total employee absences at schools, saying the number was a combination of COVID-related and non-COVID-related absences. The school system says it recently averaged about 762 absences per day which can be attributed to the current  flu and coronavirus surge. 

“We are committed to providing a high-quality education for our students while continuing to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our schools. We have taken proactive measures throughout the course of the pandemic to mitigate the spread through continued masking; weekly mandatory staff testing; deep cleaning and sanitation; vaccine and booster clinics. We have continued to keep the lines of communication open to all of our organization educator unions and associations and have been able to hear and address the concerns of those willing to speak with myself and executive staff,” Superintendent Sito Narcisse said in a statement.