Here’s why KCK schools decided to wait all the way to April to return to classrooms
Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools had planned to wait until January to return to in-person classes because of COVID-19. But district officials now say even that cautious plan would be too dangerous after families gather for the holidays.
That’s one reason the school board voted to wait until April 5 to bring students and teachers back into classrooms. And that could still change, Edwin Birch, district spokesman, said Wednesday.
While almost all other districts in the Kansas City region have started in-person classes in various modes this school year, KCK’s students have all been in online classes.
The district had intended to begin some in-person classes Jan. 19, starting with preschoolers through third-graders full time. They had planned to phase in older students, with middle and high school students attending in person some days and online other days.
Board members said their decision Tuesday night to postpone until April was driven by recent spikes in COVID-19 rates in Wyandotte County and the surrounding area.
On Monday, the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kansas, reported a record 102 patients. November ended with 82,582 cases in the metro and a seven-day average for new cases of 954.
Enough teachers and staff told board members they worried that even with safety protocols, in-person classes wouldn’t be safe for them or their students, Birch said.
“Even if we were to bring students back in the classrooms in January, we would have to have enough staff and teachers to greet them,” he said.
Across the metro area, other districts reported hundreds of staff, teachers and students were infected or quarantined and said staffing and substitute teacher shortages forced them to return some or all students to online-only classes.
KCK has avoided that problem, Birch said. “We are not at that point yet, but we could be” if they go back to in-person class too soon, he said. And, there is some concern that if teachers don’t feel safe they might leave.
Kansas City Public Schools in Missouri had been the only other district to delay returning to in-person classes until next year. Officials decided last month to begin opening schools in January.
Under KCK’s current plan, if school reopens in April, only about eight weeks will remain in the school year. Now, Birch said, some people are asking why come back at all?
The district doesn’t have an answer for that yet. But, Birch said, “things keep changing.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Here’s why KCK schools decided to wait all the way to April to return to classrooms."
