Kansas City mayor: Schools should delay opening until after Labor Day amid COVID-19
Kansas City school districts should wait until after Labor Day to start in-person classes, Mayor Quinton Lucas and Health Department Director Rex Archer recommended on Tuesday.
“This is not an order closing schools,” Lucas said. “This is buying us time.”
Lucas said he did not see a reason to issue a mandate because “almost every school district has acted responsibly throughout this crisis,” he said. “I think no school district wants to see an outbreak inside any of its school buildings. We have no interest in seeing schools delayed significantly. We have no interest in seeing educational opportunities for our children limited.”
The recommendation is directed at all schools in Kansas City, including the 14 districts within the city as well as private and parochial schools, Lucas said.
Lucas also called on counties — Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass — to find funding to help school districts keep their students and staff safe.
Archer said the recommended delay is based on data showing a recent rise in new coronavirus cases among people under 19 in Kansas City. They hope that waiting until after Labor Day will offer time for those numbers to decline and for schools to better prepare.
The announcement came one day after Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed an executive order to delay opening schools until after Labor Day. Another order mandated COVID-19 safety precautions: All staff and students must wear a mask, sanitize their hands at least once an hour and have their temperature taken as they enter the building.
But without a state mandate on the Missouri side, individual districts have varying plans for when and how to reopen school.
Lee’s Summit school district, which has schools within Kansas City’s boundaries, said that for now it intends to reopen on Aug. 26 and will follow recommendations from the Jackson County Health Department rather than Kansas City.
Its reopening plans “prepare us to provide instruction in multiple ways depending on the landscape prior to the start of school,” said spokeswoman Katy Bergen.
Kenny Southwick, executive director of the Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City, which represents 30 Missouri districts, said he is “not sure what difference waiting until after Labor Day will do.” He said with the COVID-19 situation changing “almost daily, it is a very tough decision for districts.”
Most districts have already made plans, and in some, teachers are set to come back as early as Aug. 7, he said.
“This has turned into somewhat of a political theater, and districts are getting caught in the middle,” Southwick said.
But Bruce Moe, executive director of the Missouri State Teachers Association, said “the guidance from the health director and the mayor make it clear that now is not the time for schools to reopen for in-person classes. Teachers will be relieved to have a pause in reopening school buildings in this environment.”
Kansas City Public Schools officials said Tuesday they would recommend that the school board delay opening until after Labor Day.
“We believe the health department has more expertise than we do on this issue,” said Kelly Wachel, district spokeswoman.
On Monday, district officials told parents that on the advice of city health officials, they would rethink their school reopening plan, which included options for online learning and in-person classes. The school board will meet Wednesday to decide reopening plans. Superintendent Mark Bedell said he expected to release a new plan by early next week.
Several area districts already have released school reopening plans that give parents a choice between in-person classes and keeping their children home to learn online.
North Kansas City school district, which released a reopening plan in June, said officials are talking with other school districts and the school board before making any decisions on when to start school.
Two of Kansas City’s 20 charter schools, the Ewing Marion Kauffman School and Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy, “have made the decision to serve their students with 100% online school in the Fall,” said Doug Thaman, executive director of the Missouri Charter Public School Association.
Other charters, he said, are offering parents a choice of all online, all in-person class or a mix of the two. “It’s important to note these are all plans for 20 to 30 days from now based on current science, metrics, and medical projections,” Thaman said.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, during a St. Louis radio interview on Friday, said students should go back into schools, even though he believes most will catch COVID-19 there.
“If they do get COVID-19, which they will, and they will when they go to school, they’re not going to the hospitals, they’re not going to have to sit in doctors’ offices,” said Parson, a Republican. “They’re going to go home, and they’re gonna get over it and most of it all proves out to be that way if you look at the science of it.”
Critics said he was being cavalier with the lives of students and teachers.
But Archer said Tuesday that when schools do reopen, “every school district needs to assume that parts of classes and even entire buildings might have the need to close,” should any students or teachers test positive for the virus.
Anyone who tests positive, he said, would need to be isolated. “Part of the issue of this delay gives us a better sense of where the outbreak is going. Is it slowing down?” Archer said.
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 9:42 AM.
