It’s not safe to reopen schools, Johnson County health officials advise districts
Update: Blue Valley school board rejects county health department advice. Story here.
With the number of new COVID-19 cases continuing to surge, Johnson County has not met the criteria necessary to safely reopen schools, health officials advised leaders of six districts on Tuesday.
“The spread of the virus is still increasing in Johnson County. The risk of exposure to the virus is low in schools when community transmission is low,” county health department director Sanmi Areola said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we have not met the threshold in the school gating criteria for a safe return to in-person learning, even for a hybrid model.”
It’s up to Johnson County districts to decide whether to follow the health officials’ guidance. Shawnee Mission was among the first to announce Tuesday afternoon it would go to online-only classes. The De Soto district will do the same.
“Please know that this is not the outcome that any of us hoped for when we began planning for the opening of schools this past spring,” Shawnee Mission Superintendent Mike Fulton said in a statement. “We miss our students and can’t wait to be back together with them.”
In addition, officials said, the district will suspend all sports and activities after Friday.
The Blue Valley school board scheduled a special meeting Tuesday evening to discuss how to reopen when the school year begins after Labor Day.
Other districts were expected to announce plans soon.
Districts had been planning for three models of learning: in person, online or a hybrid of the two, where students could go to class on some days and learn from home the rest of the week. At enrollment, parents had to decide whether they wanted their students to learn online for the entire first semester or return to school when allowed. On average, around 30% of students in Johnson County’s largest districts opted for online only.
“While starting remotely is in the best interest of students and staff, the intent is that, as county data improve, Shawnee Mission School District can transition to the hybrid model, where students attend school in-person twice a week,” district officials said. “The ultimate goal is to eventually transition to full in-person learning for all students, as county health conditions allow.”
A few other districts across the metro had already said it is unsafe to bring students back. The Kansas City, Kansas, district in July decided on fully online learning for the first nine weeks of the year.
On the Missouri side, the Kansas City school board decided to begin school with online classes only until case levels drop significantly. Lee’s Summit will also start online only, with an undetermined date for when class is in person.
Late last month, the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment released guidance to school districts on how to determine when it is safe to bring students back to class. It includes several reopening phases based on key metrics, including the positivity rate — which is the average percentage of positive COVID-19 tests over a 14-day period.
Per the criteria, Johnson County is in the “red” zone, meaning remote learning is recommended for nearly all students. The criteria states that elementary students could return to school under the current conditions, although some districts already decided against offering different learning options to the elementary grade level.
As of Tuesday, the positivity rate was 11.4%. Earlier this month, the rate hovered below 10%.
Another key metric says the number of new coronavirus cases each day must be steady or decreasing. But in the past 14 days, officials said, the number has been rising.
The count averaged 106 new cases per day last week, after two weeks of averaging 90 cases per day. “These are very high numbers,” officials said.
Under the “red” zone, health officials also recommend no in-person sports or other extracurricular activities for the start of the fall semester. But districts will determine whether to follow that advice as well.
Health officials said circumstances could change, if the community continues to social distance, avoid large crowds, stay away from house parties and wear masks.
“We ask that all of us as community continue to work hard collectively to control the virus,” Areola said.
Under the gating criteria:
▪ Johnson County would be in the “green” zone when the rate of positive tests is below 5%. Officials determined that under the phase, all students can learn in person, with social distancing and other precautions.
▪ Johnson County was in the “yellow” zone earlier this month. That means the positivity rate was less than 10%, and the number of new cases was steady or decreasing. In that phase, students could learn in a hybrid model, which would help schools reduce interactions and implement social distancing.
▪ In the “red” zone, Johnson County’s positivity rate exceeds 10%. That means officials recommend online only learning, with an exception for elementary students.
A New York Times analysis also found that Johnson County is not ready to safely reopen schools, per guidelines from the Harvard Global Health Institute, which looked at counties’ rate of new infections and testing capabilities.
If the transmission rate improves, districts could decide to allow students to return to class.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 3:25 PM.
