One JoCo school board reverses course: All students will be in classrooms part time
One week after the De Soto school district announced that all students would start the school year online, its school board voted to reverse course. Instead, the district will bring all students back to classrooms part time.
The board called a special meeting Monday night to discuss how to begin the school year, even though last week Superintendent Frank Harwood said all students would start with online-only classes. After nearly six hours of discussion and public comments, the board voted to bring all students back to school after Labor Day in a hybrid model of learning.
The school board previously agreed to adopt Johnson County’s criteria for safely reopening schools, which shows that the county is in the “red” zone because of the high community spread of coronavirus. In that zone, county officials recommend that older students learn remotely and that sports be suspended.
De Soto, in northwest Johnson County, and Shawnee Mission, just to the east, were the only districts to announce that all students would be in online classes. Shawnee Mission has faced a flurry of protests, for and against the decision.
After Johnson County health officials released school opening criteria last month, the Kansas State Department of Education approved its own guidance for districts, which takes more data points into consideration, such as hospital capacity.
Last week, the Blue Valley school board voted to follow the state’s criteria. A committee of administrators and health officials determined that the district was in the “orange” zone per the state criteria, and voted to require older students to take online-only classes. Elementary students will return to class in a hybrid model.
On Monday night, the De Soto school board also adopted the state criteria, with a 4-3 vote. But it decided to begin classes in the “yellow” zone, bringing all students back in a hybrid model.
The decision came after the board listened to several parents who pushed for schools to open. Protests have taken place across the region as families urge districts to bring students back to class and allow them to play fall sports.
In the “yellow” zone, the state recommends that all-school activities and high-risk activities, such as football, be suspended. But the school board decided against following that section of the state criteria, allowing sports and activities to continue.
“The Board specifically omitted school activities from the gating criteria. Activities will continue following guidance from the Kansas State High School Activities Association and any other health regulations or health orders that may be in place,” district officials said in a news release.
Both Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission have suspended sports and activities.
The school board directed administration to create an advisory committee that will meet on a regular basis to determine whether to move out of the “yellow” phase.
The state criteria includes five key metrics to help districts determine when to allow students back in class:
▪ The county positivity rate, or the average percentage of positive COVID-19 tests over a 14-day period. On Tuesday, the rate was 10.5%. The rate would need to be under 10% to fall in the “yellow” zone.
▪ The number of new cases per 100,000 people in the community. In the past seven days, the county reported nearly 138 new cases per 100,000 people. That number would need to be below 100 to fall in the “yellow” zone.
▪ The infection rate trend. In Johnson County, the number of new daily cases over the past two weeks has been increasing, which falls in the “red” zone. The number would need to be steady for the county to fall in the “orange” or “yellow” zones.
▪ Hospital capacity. Health officials have said that metric remains stable in the county. According to hospital data compiled by the Mid-America Regional Council, Johnson County’s hospital capacity would put it in the “green” zone.
▪ The last metric would not be available until after school is back in session. Districts would look at the two-week absentee rate — or the percentage of students absent from school compared to the same rate last year — in each building. A rate of 10% higher than the previous year would put the district in the “red” zone.
According to the student newspaper Mill Valley News, board member Rachele Zade said at the meeting, “I know this decision is emotional, and it doesn’t reflect the numbers, but decisions cannot be made on just numbers.”
Last week when Harwood announced his decision to start the school year online, he said “all of us are frustrated and anxious about the unknowns that lie ahead and the need to continually change plans.”
In a video message to the community, he said that to open schools safely, “the spread of COVID-19 must be moderate or low, otherwise the risks to our students, our staff as well as the larger community are too great.”
