Lee’s Summit schools quarantine 725; most students head back to online only classes
The Lee’s Summit school district will move students fourth grade and older back to online-only classes beginning Monday, as the Kansas City region sees record COVID-19 cases and schools face staffing shortages.
The school board made the decision at a special meeting Tuesday night after seeing a spike in infected students, teachers and staff over the last four days. More than 725 staff and students are in quarantine, according to district data. For the first time, district officials said, the virus is spreading among teachers and students in classrooms.
The change to online learning, which will be in effect until Jan. 25, came in multiple parts:
First, the board voted to have students in fourth through sixth grades attend classes online only. The vote came one day after those students had started full time in-person classes. Board member Judy Hedrick cast the lone no vote, without comment.
In a second motion, the board unanimously voted for students in middle schools and high schools, who have been attending classes online some days and in-person on others, to go to online only class.
In a third motion, the board voted 5-2 for students in pre-K through third grade to continue with full time in-person classes. Board members Kathryn Campbell and Megan Marshall voted no. Marshall said she wanted those students to also go virtual to be consistent with the older students.
“I understand parents who want their kids to be in school, but we have to keep them safe so that we can educate them,” Marshall said. And before the board vote, teachers suggested to district leaders that the younger students go to virtual learning.
But other board members said they worried that since the younger children had not done virtual learning, changing now might be difficult for them.
Some parents said later they were not happy with the board decision.
“I would have liked for the board to listen to the elementary teachers,” said Shannon Dowers, who has two children in the district. “Why ask for input if they really don’t care and go against their requests? They need to think of teachers’ safety as well.”
On the LSR7+Insider Facebook page, parent opinions were mixed.
“One board member pulling for reason and consistency. Then another board member pulls it in another opposite direction,” wrote Jamie Appelbaum. “They are in denial. K-3 will have to go virtual eventually why not do it all consistently!? It’s a pandemic and some are still living in la la land.”
Kristyn Kuplen Thorpe posted, “We should be trying to get and keep these children back in school at any cost! They are our future, I’m confused why some teachers are not in favor of this as well?”
Superintendent David Buck said he had recommended all grade levels return to virtual learning after consulting with health officials. But in the past, health officials have said that younger children are less likely to spread the virus and that young children are not safe if left home alone when parents who can’t afford child care have to go out to work.
The board will re-evaluate the changes by Jan. 14, and plans to discuss whether to continue with winter sports at its next board meeting. The district has 53 sports teams, and 16 of them are in quarantine.
“If we had been meeting seven days ago we would be saying something different than what we are saying today,” Buck said. “But in the last two weeks cases have gone up.”
Of the 24 schools in the district, only three had no cases as of Tuesday, according to the most recent data reported on the district COVID-19 dashboard.
From Nov. 10 through Nov. 16, the district saw 123 new cases, 62 more than the previous week. Among the latest new cases, 42 are high school students, 40 elementary and 12 middle school. The other 29 are staff members.
It’s the highest number of cases since the district started back to school Sept. 8.
“As a result, we anticipate our ability to provide appropriate staffing and a consistent learning experience will become more and more challenging,” Buck said. He said school principals have had to call on other building staff and administrators to cover classrooms when teachers are out and an official substitute is not available.
“Problem is if the schools follow what the county mandates and 7-10 people are quarantined for every positive case, there will be no teachers or students in the buildings, not because they are all sick but because they have been placed on mandatory quarantine,” Natalie Howe Secrist said on Facebook.
Throughout the region, other districts have also reported staffing and substitute shortages and are returning to online only classes or considering doing so.
The Park Hill school district north of the river and every Johnson County district are moving older students back to online-only classes (one never brought them back to classrooms to begin with).
Health officials said last week that there is an uncontrolled spread of the virus in the Kansas City metro. Jackson County has reported 14,380 cases, including 163 deaths, according to the state of Missouri’s dashboard.
In an order taking effect Friday, Jackson County limited gatherings to 10 people and mandated restaurants and bars operate at 50% capacity.
The metro, including Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, as well as Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, has more than 67,000 cases, according to data maintained by The Star.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 10:33 AM.
