Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday he’s recommending schools wait until Sept. 28 to begin in-person instruction. He cited a concern that the rate of positive coronavirus tests remains too high in Kentucky, along with other factors related to the spread of COVID-19.
Shortly after the governor’s announcement, the Christian County Board of Education scheduled a special meeting for 11 a.m. Wednesday. The meeting agenda will be available Tuesday morning, school district spokesman John Rittenhouse said.
Local private schools are also making decisions about whether to delay the start of school based on the governor’s recommendation.
University Heights Academy has a meeting planned Tuesday to determine whether its school calendar will be adjusted. The school had planned to open on Monday, Aug. 17, said Head of School Beth Unfried.
Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School is scheduled to bring students back on Aug. 18, but in a Facebook post, the school announced principals in the Diocese of Owensboro will meet this week to decide if any changes will be made to school schedules.
Heritage Christian Academy, which was slated to open Tuesday, Aug. 11, also announced a change on its Facebook page.
“After the governor’s announcement and meeting with the Christian County Health Department, Heritage Christian Academy will delay the school start date to Tuesday, August 18 at which time we will begin with NTI (non-traditional instruction). In-person instruction will be determined week to week following the start date,” HCA announced.
The public school board previously voted to begin the school year with in-person instruction on Aug. 27. Parents who don’t want to send their children back into classrooms have been given the option of enrolling in a virtual school.
The governor highlighted four factors in his recommendation to delay the start of in-person instruction. Those are:
- Kentucky’s cases being near a peak
- An increase in infection rates among children across the U.S.
- The experience of school districts in other states
- Families continuing to travel to hotspots for vacations against the advice of health officials
In a statement from his office, the governor said:
“Our recommendation today is that schools wait to begin in-person classes until Sept. 28. … Yes, that’s six weeks from now, but it’s also six weeks from what I hope is the peak of this virus, six weeks from the last three weeks where we have been at an all-time high week in and week out, six weeks from a time when we just had a 6% positivity rate.
“… I think what all of the health care specialists said when we talked about reopening, is we need to be looking at a decline. In other words, we need to get our positive rate down. On top of that, what we’re seeing are more outbreaks and more infections in kids. The two hardest things I do every day is read the deaths and the number of kids infected under 5.
“And it’s not just kids under 5. We’re having record numbers of children that are infected, and it shows this infection spreads to them when we still don’t know the long-term impact. What we do know is children have a harder time social distancing. And we can’t put a whole bunch of them in a classroom with a teacher right now. Other states that have tried to open this new school year are now having to close. We don’t want to start and stop. That may be more difficult on our children.”
A live video of the Christian County Board of Education’s meeting Wednesday will be available for the public to view online.
The school district has guidance available online about returning to school.
(This story has been updated to include school opening information from the three private schools in Hopkinsville.)
(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.
