Students who don’t opt out of in-person instruction will return to the classroom Tuesday, roughly three weeks ahead of the Christian County Board of Education’s original plan for dealing with the potential spread of COVID-19 in schools.
The board voted 4-to-1 Thursday night in favor of Superintendent Chris Bentzel’s recommendation to start in-person instruction the day after Labor Day. Previously, the board had voted to comply with Gov. Andy Beshear’s recommendation that districts not return for in-person instruction before Sept. 28 as a measure to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Kentucky.
Elementary school students will be on a traditional schedule and attend in-person classes five days a week. Middle and high schoolers will be on a hybrid schedule. They will be in class two days and have virtual learning the remainder of the week.
The school system began the school year on Aug. 27 using two models — the VLA and Non-Traditional Instruction, a form of online and distance learning.
Virtual Learning Academy registration
The plan comes with an offer that gives parents until 5 p.m. Monday to enroll their children in the school system’s new Virtual Learning Academy if they have any concerns about in-person classes. Students in the VLA will continue the school year entirely through virtual instruction.
As of Thursday evening, nearly one-third of the district’s 8,710 students were already in VLA or had signed up this week. With 379 new sign-ups, the VLA enrollment grew to 2,776.
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- VIDEO: Watch CCPS Superintendent Chris Bentzel discuss his recommendation to return to in-person classes
Keeping students safe
Tom Bell, concerned about the safety of bringing students back to school at this stage in the pandemic, was the only school board member who voted against Bentzel’s plan. Board members Linda Keller, Lindsey Clark, Jeff Moore and Susan Hayes voted in favor.
“I think our No. 1 priority is to keep the kids safe and then educate them,” Bell said.
Many of the students will be in classrooms that provide only enough space for 3 feet between children, Bell said. Bentzel acknowledged that was correct.
Bell said 40 people contacted him and not one supported returning to class ahead of the governor’s recommendation to wait until at least Sept. 28 for in-person instruction.
He noted students and staff would be returning to schools the day after a holiday, which is when health officials warn of coronavirus spikes.
Keller said she was more concerned about children who need to be in front of teachers. She referred to “gaps” in their lives academically and socially when they are away from school.
Tracking other districts with in-person classes
The school board’s decision comes less than a week after a federal report ranked Christian County among 14 Kentucky counties in the so-called “red zone” where new cases of the coronavirus numbered more than one per 1,000 residents and the positive test rate was more than 10%.
But district administrators have been tracking 12 other school systems that returned to class in August and only one has needed to temporarily close because of a virus outbreak. Bentzel noted there was just one active case of COVID-19 among local staff on Thursday, and 10 employees will complete a quarantine this week after being exposed to the staffer who tested positive.
“We are in the business of kids. We do what is best for kids and sometimes that’s a very difficult task to do because sometimes our feelings as adults, our own thought processes — sometimes data, sometimes whatever, in this case, political views — get in that way,” Bentzel told board members.
He said the school system had the support of the health department — although not its recommendation — to reopen schools.
“We can make this work,” Bentzel said.
Limiting exposure
Bentzel said district officials believe it is safe for elementary students to attend classes five days a week because they do not change classes like students in middle and high schools. The younger students are exposed to a much smaller number of classmates each day, while middle and high schoolers typically have seven periods and change classes throughout the day.
“All students will undergo a temperature check each morning as they enter a school building,” district spokesman John Rittenhouse told Hoptown Chronicle. “If the student does not show signs of a temperature, the student will continue directly to his/her first class. From there, that classroom will pretty much stay together as a group each day. This will help in the case of a positive test; we will immediately know which set of students to isolate.”
Rittenhouse said there are no plans for COVID-19 testing in schools. Social distancing and personal protective equipment will be required on school buses and in the schools.
The district has ordered tablets for students in the VLA; however, those are not yet available and families will have to provide their own computers or electronic devices.
After-school care will be available starting Tuesday afternoon at the elementary schools where the program is offered for parents who don’t get off work when the school day ends. The district’s preschool programs will start back on Sept. 14.
While the board and Bentzel talked about safety for students and the district’s nearly 1,900 employees, no one at the meeting mentioned the potential harm through community spread of the virus from schools to homes.
As of Wednesday, at least 38 of Kentucky’s 171 school districts had elected to not comply with the governor’s request to delay in-person classes, according to the Kentucky School Boards Association report.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
