COVID-19 ‘spreading like wildfire’: Lee’s Summit flips decision, sends all kids online
The Lee’s Summit school board changed course Thursday and decided against letting its youngest students continue with in-person classes while COVID-19 cases are spiking in the Kansas City metro.
The board voted 6-1 at its regularly scheduled meeting to have students in pre-K through third grade attend online only classes beginning Monday and through Jan. 11 because of a continued rise in cases and quarantines among staff and students, particularly at the pre-K level.
That reverses the board’s decision on Tuesday to have students in fourth grade and older attend virtual classes but keep younger students in classrooms full time.
Since then, board members said, they had received dozens of emails from parents and teachers wanting all students to go to virtual learning.
Board member Judy Hedrick was the lone no vote. “I have heard from just as many people who want children to be in school and teachers who want to be in school,” Hedrick said.
Member Megan Marshall argued that the decision is about “health and safety. Our schools do not exist in a vacuum. They live in our community where COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire.”
Board president Ryan Murdock, in an email to The Star, said cases and quarantines have risen dramatically in the last two days. “With a declining substitute fill rate, high absenteeism as a result of these isolations and quarantines, we will need to decide if this is sustainable, even in the short term.”
“The board and district administrators will convene on or around Jan. 4 to review data from November and December to determine if students may return to in-person learning on Jan. 11,” district spokeswoman, Katy Bergen said in a post to parents on the LSR7+insider Facebook page. If data does not support the return, elementary virtual education will be extended until Jan. 25, the date it had set for older students.
During Thursday’s meeting, Superintendent David Buck said the district had already temporarily closed one elementary school because so many students and teachers were out due to the coronavirus, and it was considering closing a second building.
“At one building we had virtually no cases all year, and within a few days it jumped up to 10% in quarantine. It escalates quickly,” Buck said.
On Tuesday, the board had met in a special meeting after a spike in infected students, teachers and staff over a four-day period. Buck, taking his lead from health officials, recommended all grade levels return to virtual learning. The board voted to have students in fourth through 12th grades go to online-only classes, starting next week and until Jan. 25.
But it held off on going that route with the younger children because some members said they thought it would be hard for that age group to make the switch since, unlike middle and high school students, they have been going to class in person full time since school opened Sept. 8.
On Tuesday, Lee’s Summit had 123 cases and 726 students, teachers and staff in quarantine, according to numbers on the district’s COVID-19 dashboard. Buck said Thursday the number in quarantine had risen to more than 940.
If the increase continues at the current rate, Buck said, “we would be well over 1,000 quarantined by next Tuesday.”
From Nov. 10-16, the district saw 94 new cases among students and 29 among staff, including teachers. That total is 62 more cases than the previous week, the largest of the school year.
Among the latest new cases, 42 are high school students, 40 elementary and 12 middle school. And this week for the first time, district officials said, the virus is spreading among teachers and students in classrooms.
During Thursday’s meeting, Heather Crain, president of Lee’s Summit National Education Association, pleaded with board members to have all grade levels go to online-only classes and for teachers to be allowed to teach from home rather than requiring them to report to school buildings even when all their students are online.
“Give us professional courtesy and trust us to do our jobs,” Crain said.
She said in a survey of 546 teachers, 94 % are stressed, 68% don’t trust the district’s contact tracing and 79% have low morale. The board did not take up that issue Thursday but several members said they support allowing teachers to work from home.
“I think that we need to rethink this,” said member Kim Fritchie. “ We have heard our teachers continually ask to be able to work from home. I think we need to trust our teachers to work from a setting where they feel comfortable.”
Throughout the region, other districts have also reported staffing and substitute shortages and are returning to online only classes.
The Park Hill school district is sending all students online, and every Johnson County district will do so for older students.
Health officials said last week that there is an uncontrolled spread of the virus in the Kansas City metro.
The metro area added more than 1,300 COVID-19 cases Thursday. The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, as well as Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, gained 1,321 cases for a total of 71,378.
In an order taking effect Friday, Jackson County limited gatherings to 10 people and mandated restaurants and bars operate at 50% capacity.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 9:18 AM.
