Gov. Kelly announces task force on school COVID, nixes state mask mandates
.JPG "Gov. Laura Kelly answers COVID questions Wednesday with Dr. Stephanie Kuhlmann of University of Kansas Medical School Wichita")
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Gov. Laura Kelly on Wednesday called on Kansans to protect school children from the coronavirus, but will likely not enact more widespread COVID-19 interventions such as a statewide mask mandate or limits on mass gatherings.
The governor appeared at a news conference in the children’s unit at Wesley Medical Center, where she announced the formation of a task force to advise her administration, local government and school districts on the growing issues of school transmission of COVID-19.
“We have to do everything in our power to protect our students, our teachers and our staff in schools,” Kelly said. “And that’s why today, in addition to celebrating the five-year anniversary of Wesley Children’s, I’m also here to announce a new Safer Classrooms Workgroup. We’re bringing together a group of highly skilled health professionals, pediatricians, family physicians, school nurses, pharmacists and psychologists.”
She announced the group will be co-chaired by Drs. Jennifer Bacani McKenney of Wilson County and Stephanie Kuhlmann of the University of Kansas Medical School Wichita.
The group will gather input from school patrons and health professionals and issue “best practices” recommendations on how to limit the spread of COVID.
The group will also issue weekly school safety reports that will include updates on hospitalizations, and if necessary, deaths of children and youth along with a list of schools with active outbreaks.
The report will contain policy information on vaccinations, student quarantines, testing and masking requirements.
But Kelly shied away from previous COVID-prevention methods she’d ordered, including statewide mask mandates and limitations on attendance at public events.
“I want to avoid that at all cost,” Kelly said. “When the pandemic first started a year and a half ago, we didn’t know what we know now. Now we know how to slow the spread and how to stop the virus. I would rather we implement those procedures rather than other things that we implemented a year and a half ago because it was the only thing we knew to do at the time. We know differently now.”
She said it’s up to local boards to decide whether to mask up their personnel and students, and she supports that in the wake of Wellington schools having to suspend classes last week until Sept. 7.
“They’re paying attention and I hope the reality on the ground will drive the policies that those school boards make,” she said. “But in the event that the school board does not take that step and require masking, then I would turn to every parent in the state of Kansas and just say, ‘You can. It’s your kid. If you want to put a mask on your kid regardless of whether it’s required, please do.’”
In response to a question about how the Kelly administration is helping hospitals, Kelly didn’t mention direct aid but said the administration was doing everything in its power to encourage vaccinations to reduce the number of sick Kansans.
She said public and private efforts are underway to convince more people to take the vaccine, including ads targeting the 12- to 17-year-old age group, Turnpike vaccination clinics and a program by Dillon’s stores to give $100 in store credit to people who get the jab.
“We’re trying to use every innovative way we can to get people to get vaccinated,” she said.
Last week, the Kansas Hospital Association said the organization was discussing options for alleviating the increasing stress on providers with the Kelly administration.
Though no decision had been landed on, spokeswoman Cindy Samuelson said they were working quickly.
As of Monday Samuelson said she had received no updates on the discussions or decisions.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said in an email Tuesday they were “exploring options” to assist hospitals but were not providing staffing or funding.
The Kansas Department of Emergency Management said in an email that they could not assist with COVID-19 related struggles without a disaster declaration in place. Republican legislative leadership opted in June to allow the emergency to expire.
Kansas has access to several billion dollars in federal funds that could be used to manage COVID-19 but any expenditures must be approved by the newly formed SPARK executive committee that includes a mix of legislative leaders, members of the business community and members of the Kelly administration.
The committee, however, has not met since early July. In July, the committee was still discussing how best to structure itself to make medium and long term decisions about use of federal funds.
“I don’t know what the executive committee is doing,” Waymaster said. “I’m a little perplexed as to what’s going on with SPARK.”
“With the delta variant and a lot of our hospitals are at capacity. This could be something that could be administered by the SPARK executive committee. Why are we not moving forward with it.”
Greg Orman, a Kansas businessman and member of the committee, said he believed SPARK committee members had discussed options for helping hospitals but had not yet seen a specific request from the state hospital association.
“To the extent that the hospital system can come forward and demonstrate that hardship I think it would be very appropriate for the SPARK committee to consider it,” Orman said.
“I think we should certainly be meeting more frequently and we need to get organized so that we’re not only able to respond to near term pandemic related issues that are time sensitive, but also be in a position to make sure we’re investing the money as effectively as possible.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Gov. Kelly announces task force on school COVID, nixes state mask mandates."
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