Christian County Public Schools will delay in-person instruction until at least Sept. 28, after the local school board voted Wednesday to follow Gov. Andy Beshear’s request that schools push back the date to open schools.
Students here will begin the school year as planned on Aug. 27, but all instruction will be online for at least the first month.
Superintendent Chris Bentzel recommended the delay but said it was “an understatement” to say he was disappointed by the need to delay opening schools to students because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The four board members who were present for the virtual meeting — Lindsey Clark, Sue Hayes, Tom Bell and chairwoman Linda Keller — voted in favor of Bentzel’s recommendation.
Students who had planned to return to the classroom this month will use Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) and those who had already signed up for the Virtual Learning Academy (VLA) will proceed with that program. Bentzel explained the VLA and other plans for the school year at a July school board meeting.
Bell asked Bentzel to look at staggered shifts for teachers so parents who are not home between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. can still communicate with the schools when they need help guiding their children with online instruction.
Beshear announced Monday that he was recommending that public schools delay in-person instruction until Sept. 28.
State education officials quickly warned local districts they should not defy the governor’s recommendation, leaving school boards across the the state with no easy way to start in-person instruction earlier than Beshear requested.
Interim Education Commissioner Kevin Brown had a virtual meeting Tuesday with superintendents and said districts that did not follow the governor’s recommendation could face consequences, the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper reported.
Brown said the governor recommended the delay because COVID-19 cases are widespread in Kentucky. Christian County’s rate of positive COVID-19 tests is 10.34%, the local health department announced Tuesday. Health officials generally warn that a rate of 5% or higher is a concern. The local rate is almost double the state’s rate of 5.87%
(Jennifer P. Brown is the editor and founder of Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
