These Kansas City area school districts closing additional weeks to halt coronavirus
Update: Many more school districts in the Kansas City area will be closed because of coronavirus concerns. Read the full story here.
Independence and Fort Osage school districts are the first in the Kansas City area to announce they are closing school until the last week of the month to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
All school activities, including classes and athletic events, are canceled until Monday, March 30, officials announced Sunday.
Officials in other districts in the Kansas City area — on the Kansas and the Missouri sides — say that during their spring break this week they will monitor reports from health officials to decide when to resume classes.
Around the country, classrooms will be empty as more districts and states announce long-term closures. Some are going to online classes. Independence and Fort Osage have opted to simply cancel school.
Officials did not immediately respond to The Star to clarify how and whether students will make up the time.
Rex Archer, director of the Kansas City Health Department, said at a media briefing Monday that closing schools is not necessarily a good idea and that officials should not treat coronavirus as they would the flu.
“With influenza, the disease spreads through schools out into the population, and we have more illness problems with kids. We’re seeing very few kids under 19 get this disease at all, and they apparently are not shedding the virus at a level that is very contagious,” Archer said.
“Closing schools has all kinds of other negative implications. Teen pregnancy rates often go up. Violence can go up. Kids aren’t then learning. We have like 90% of our kids in one school district in the city that are on free and reduced school lunch. They’re taking backpacks (of food) home over the weekend. Feeding kids is important.
“Folks that don’t have access to child care — how are they going to take off work to watch their child at home? … So we really need to get past what I would almost call the mass hysteria to some of these decisions and think through what are the positives and negatives of this?”
Gwendolyn Grant, president of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, tweeted Monday afternoon that Archer’s comments about the implications of closing school are offensive.
Schools plan for closing
Last week, St. Teresa’s Academy, a private all-girls school in Kansas City, announced that after this week’s spring break, it will offer classes online-only March 23 to April 3.
The Barstow School, another private school, announced that classes will not resume until March 30 at the earliest. A family member of a school employee tested positive for COVID-19, but offiicials said no one else at the school was exposed.
In the Independence district, spring break ended on Monday. Beginning Tuesday, “grab and go” lunches are being made available free for all district students from 11 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
The district is asking parents and students to drive up along the front entrance of any of these schools — Bridger Middle School, Randall Elementary, Truman High School, Van Horn High School and William Chrisman High School — and meals will be brought out to the vehicles.
“This is an unprecedented situation, and we appreciate your patience and understanding as we respond and work to support our students, families, and staff throughout the closure,” Independence school officials said in a statement. “Our priority is the basic needs of students and families.”
The district also is allowing families that do not have technology at home to check out a Chromebook from their child’s school from 3:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Fort Osage school officials are making online learning activities available to families at http://bit.ly/fosdhlr. They said these activities are not required but are being offered to help parents keep their children engaged.
Other school districts
On Sunday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and state Education Commissioner Randy Watson recommended that schools coming off of spring break suspend operations this week. But most schools in Johnson and Wyandotte counties are off this week for spring break. And some other Kansas districts had already announced plans to close this week, including districts in Lawrence and Manhattan.
“Closing all schools during this same period of time provides Kansas officials the time needed to finalize a comprehensive plan for how to address COVID-19,” the Kansas State Department of Education said on Twitter. “It is critical that we all follow a coordinated response to this situation.”
On Saturday, the Shawnee Mission school district announced that the parent of a Lenexa Hills Elementary School student tested positive for COVID-19. The family is in self-quarantine.
“We are closed for spring break, and have plans to do a deep cleaning of all our buildings as a precautionary step,” Shawnee Mission spokesman David Smith said Monday.
In a statement Sunday, officials from Shawnee Mission and five other Johnson County school districts — Blue Valley, Olathe, Gardner Edgerton, De Soto and Spring Hill — said families should “continue to to make plans “for the very real possibility of a school closure beyond spring break.”
On the Missouri side, districts such as Raytown and Hickman Mills are also on spring break. Officials are monitoring announcements from local and state health officials before making any decision about whether to resume classes next week.
Fort Osage and Independence could extend their closures beyond March, if necessary.
The Star’s Allison Kite and Lisa Gutierrez contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 1:49 PM with the headline "These Kansas City area school districts closing additional weeks to halt coronavirus."
