Blue Valley to begin school year with older students online only, sports suspended
Despite the Blue Valley school board voting to reject the Johnson County health department’s criteria for safely opening school, the district will begin the year following those recommendations anyway.
The district announced Friday it would start the school year with middle and high schoolers learning remotely. Elementary students can return to class in a hybrid model, going in person part of the week and learning from home the rest.
The district also decided to suspend all sports beginning Saturday.
The school board on Tuesday had voted to reject the Johnson County health department’s criteria — which advised against allowing older students back in classrooms due to rising COVID-19 cases. Dozens of families protested during the meeting, urging the district to open schools and allow fall sports.
The district formed its own committee, which included health officials, to examine COVID-19 cases in Blue Valley ZIP codes, as well as criteria released by the Kansas State Department of Education. The school board also agreed to let high-risk sports, such as football, continue in the meantime.
Then on Thursday, a district spokeswoman confirmed that more than 100 Blue Valley West football players are in quarantine for 14 days because three people tested positive for COVID-19.
Friday’s decision does follow Johnson County’s criteria for opening schools, which includes suspending sports as long as the county remains in the “red” zone. As of that afternoon, Johnson County had reported 6,930 COVID-19 cases, an increase of 144 since the day before.
“These are not easy decisions as we know that our community has varied opinions and feelings about a return to school,” Superintendent Tonya Merrigan said in an email to the community. “As I’ve said many times in the past few months, there is nothing I want more, nothing our Board of Education wants more and nothing our staff wants more than for students to be back in-person learning every day when it is safe to do so.”
The district’s committee that decided how to start the school year consisted of an epidemiologist, three pediatricians, a representative of the Johnson County health department, the teachers association and school administration, according to an email from board president Tom Mitchell.
When school begins after Labor Day, the hybrid and distance learning models will be in place for four weeks, through Oct. 2. The district will regularly review data to determine how best to teach under the state education department’s criteria for opening schools.
During enrollment, parents could choose to have their students learn online for the entire first semester or send their children to class when allowed. Fewer than 30% of students opted for online classes, and they aren’t affected by the district’s decision.
Before officials announced the decision Friday afternoon, several student athletes and parents protested outside of district offices. Some football players said they worry about obtaining scholarships if sports are canceled. And many worry about students’ mental health suffering in quarantine, as well as a lack of child care options when children cannot return to class full time.
“We believe, as we have watched our children grow in the community and continue to connect, that it’s important that they get back to school,” said Nick Vasquez, who has four children in Blue Valley, and said the district should offer parents a choice. “We’re really missing a key part of the communication aspect of our children, the mental and physical health.”
But several teachers and parents have been urging the district to only allow students back into classrooms when health officials deem it safe. They pleaded with district leaders to remember that it is not only students who are at risk of contracting the virus — teachers, staff, their families and the entire community also are at risk as cases continue to spread. And many teachers have health conditions putting them at a higher risk.
“Some of the quieter voices in the Blue Valley school district are scared to death,” said parent David Small in an email to The Star.
Last month, the Johnson County health department released its guidance to school districts, which was crafted in collaboration with the six districts, including Blue Valley. It includes reopening phases based on two key metrics.
They include the positivity rate, which is the average percentage of positive COVID-19 tests over a 14-day period. The rate was 11.8% on Friday. For all students to return to in-person classes, full time, the rate would need to be under 5%. The other metric says the number of new coronavirus cases each day must be steady or decreasing.
Every other district in Johnson County has followed that guidance. Shawnee Mission will begin the school year with all students learning online. Like Blue Valley, Olathe will require middle and high schoolers to take online classes, but elementary students will be allowed to return to class in a hybrid model.
The Blue Valley school board instead decided to adopt the guidance released by the state department of education, which looks at five key metrics to determine whether to bring students back to classrooms full-time, part of the week or implement online classes. The state criteria includes the positivity rate, the number of new cases per 100,000 people in the community, the infection rate trend, hospitalization data and attendance rates after school starts.
But board members also emphasized the district would focus on local, Blue Valley data, rather than the spread of the virus throughout Johnson County and the Kansas City region.
“Why are we so different that we can make customized decisions in our ‘higher income, higher demographic’ area to appease the loud majority? We are not. We are all part of the same county, state and country facing the same pandemic as everyone else,” Small said.
Marcus Baltzell, with the Kansas National Education Association, said the school board’s decision to do its own study concerned many teachers, who worried they would be forced to return to the classroom, risking their health and their families.
“Everybody wants to go back to school. Teachers absolutely want to go back to school. We know it is best for students,” he said. “But it is foolish to go against the guidance of medical experts. The county recommendations have all been very well thought out and heavily vetted and reviewed, based upon information from experts. But suddenly we had a district who said they’re handling this virus better than others. And that is ridiculous.”
“The simple fact is this virus doesn’t respect your bubble. It doesn’t respect your ZIP code or opinions or politics or mascots or marching bands. It’s going to spread,” Baltzell said.
While many said they were relieved to hear the district’s decision on Friday, others were just as frustrated by it.
“This was not an easy decision and I know it is very disappointing news for the many members of our community who were hoping to have full-time in-person learning resume on Sept. 9,” Merrigan said. “Please know that Blue Valley remains committed to a path that returns our students to full-time in-person instruction as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Officials in both the Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission districts said they are working with the Kansas State High School Activities Association to consider moving fall sports and activities to a spring season.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 3:47 PM with the headline "Blue Valley to begin school year with older students online only, sports suspended."
