Time has come to re-open Kentucky schools (Lexington, Louisville: homes, school district)

[Oldhag1]

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/opi...ls/5707059002/

The hybrid model that we are seeing in so many districts and private schools is the perfect solution, allowing those comfortable with resuming in-person learning the opportunity to do so while not compelling anyone to take steps they feel would be unsafe for their family. It’s the kind of opt-in model we are seeing in school sports in Kentucky as well, and it is already working. Schools have worked hard to create a wonderfully diverse array of creative options for those who aren’t yet ready to return. Any school that cannot accommodate some version of the hybrid system should not be allowed to reopen, but those that have the ability must be given the option to improve the lives of everyone in our communities.

No one should feel pressure to put a child who is high-risk into school right now, nor should any family feel like they have to put parents or grandparents at risk if they don’t feel comfortable. We must all fully support those who want to remain in some version of quarantine. Many of us are chomping at the bit to return, however, and you need to respect our passion and allow us to have our students back with us on Monday.

This is an opinion piece written by an educator at a private school. He is right, and as a former teacher and now a grandparent of students, I agree with his reasoning.

Fayette County (Lexington) Public Schools doesn’t have plans to even discuss the possibility of anyone returning to any type of in-person learning, with the exception of a few select elementary students on IEPs, until their November 2nd board meeting - meaning they have no plans of opening, even a day or two a week, prior to Thanksgiving, which some of the state’s larger schools systems have been successfully doing since August. Worse, it includes not even a day or two a week for older IEP students, whether they are having success or not. If I were the parent of a middle or high school student on an IEP, whose student was faltering I would sue. What is truly aggravating is it is the University of Kentucky student positive test numbers that they are using to justify this.

Climbing cases at UK could keep Fayette students from going back to classrooms, Beshear says

The earliest the state’s largest district, JCPS (Louisville), will consider opening is late October, and that will be dependent on testing. Jefferson County is home to multiple colleges and universities, including one of the state flagship universities (U of L) and four others of substantial size.

Jefferson County needs to be in or trend toward the yellow phase, or have no more than 10 new daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents based on a seven-day average, before JCPS classrooms reopen, he said.

“We have to be confident that the trend is going down and it’s not just dipping into yellow for one day,” Pollio said, adding that the district “is not in a spot to make that recommendation when we are closer to red than we are to yellow.”

Jefferson County’s incidence rate was 20.7 new cases per 100,000 residents as of Tuesday, up from 16.8 when Pollio announced his recommendation on Friday, according to state data

According to Kentucky’s new handy-dandy COVID-19 incidence map (found towards bottom of this page: Kentucky Coronavirus Monitoring) only 44 of Kentucky’s 138 school district’s should be having school even two days a week. Not a single district with a university, college, community college, or technical college is under twice the allowed level. This is ridiculous. What is more, it is twice as much more stringent than the CDC’s guidelines.

CDC indicators and thresholds for risk of introduction and transmission of COVID-19 in schools

The children, especially those not in nice safe middle class homes with someone at home all day with them, need to be back in school already. If they can’t do it full time, they at least need to be back two days a week. And no school should be able to compete in athletics if they are not open at least with the hybrid model. Funny how that is a bigger priority than actual education, even than for special education students.

[Knightime]

I have a friend who lives in Austria.Their schools reopened fully the first week of September. Full days, full weeks. One meter distancing recommended (just over half the distance we've been advised as the minimum since the beginning of lock downs) and masks required only outside of class rooms and cafeteria areas (masks are NOT required to be worn during classes) and no plexiglas shielding around desks. They're still having new virus cases there pretty much the same as everywhere, but are handling the situation in a far different manner than Kentucky and many other areas of the US.


I'll reserve commenting here directly regarding the governor and his edicts in order to not drive this thread off course except to say that much of what is being done seems driven by something other than the best interests of the state and its people.

[fivenine]

A lot of rural counties in Western and South-Central KY are having to close because of too many students quarantined.

One problem would be if too many teachers have to quarantine they don't have enough subs to cover. It isn't just about the virus as it is about the manpower or lack of if several teachers have to quarantine.