‘Dangerous moment’: Officials question how KC schools can stay open amid COVID surge
As students return to class this week, Kansas City area health and education officials warn that schools will have a hard time remaining open amid rising COVID-19 cases, staffing shortages and weakened mitigation protocols.
“This is a dangerous moment,” Steve Stites, chief medical officer of the University of Kansas Health System, said during a briefing Tuesday. “You want to keep schools open? How are you going to do that if everybody is sick? If all your staff are out? If all your kids are sick? How are you going to do that? … If we don’t take the rules of infection control seriously, this curve will bend us. It’s already bending your hospitals right now.”
Stites delivered a stark message on Tuesday as children head back to their schools, many of which no longer have mask mandates. COVID-19 cases were rising before the winter break, with some Kansas City area schools reporting higher infection rates than ever before.
The delta and omicron variants are driving a record-breaking surge, overwhelming hospitals and exacerbating staffing shortages. The KU system, one of the largest area hospitals, has more than 500 employees out on temporary leave due to COVID-19. The hospital employs more than 13,500 people.
“We’re at a critical juncture,” Stites said. “Today, I’m going to come with a combination of fear, maybe a touch of anger, and a whole lot of frustration.”
And in many areas, the political will to continue mandating and enforcing mitigation measures has run dry.
“It comes down to, I think, if somebody is not going to provide the mandate, then take it upon yourself,” said Kenny Southwick, executive director of the Cooperating School Districts of Greater Kansas City, which represents 32 districts on the Missouri side of the metro. “Be responsible yourself to keep your family safe. To wear a mask. To look at the clusters of people you associate with. To get vaccinated. … Don’t make it a political issue. Make it a family and a personal issue. Make it a school issue.”
Health experts are warning that masks, vaccinations and other mitigation strategies are crucial, especially in schools where hundreds are in close contact for several hours a day, and many are not yet vaccinated. Districts have already been struggling to fully staff classrooms, offer complete lunches amid food shortages, keep up with bus routes and more.
Southwick highlighted that several Missouri school districts have dropped their mask mandates and eased up on quarantine rules after receiving letters from Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt threatening legal challenges if they do not, following a recent court ruling. Also, Gov. Mike Parson declared that the state of emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic would be allowed to expire, saying the need for one is “no longer present.”
Prior to the holiday break, Southwick said, a survey showed that out of 21 area districts, only three had kept mask requirements in place. Facing the threat of a lawsuit, he said Missouri districts now lack the governmental coverage to issue mandates.
“It would be great if we had that coverage,” he said. “We don’t have that coverage in Missouri anymore.”
As students return, he said districts will learn “what our numbers are going to look like, what our staffing is going to look like, whether we’re going to be able to continue to feed kids. And we’re going to have to make decisions about that.”
Many districts also have dropped their mask mandates on the Kansas side.
Monday evening, the Shawnee Mission school board adjourned its special session twice as members of the crowd — there to oppose a mask mandate days before students return to school — shouted over and interrupted health officials. After the second time, the audience was removed and the board continued the meeting virtually.
Shawnee Mission previously agreed to make masks optional in middle and high schools as students return from winter break. Other Johnson County districts had made masks optional in the fall. But that was before new COVID-19 cases reached record highs and hospitals grew overwhelmingly strained, with health experts worried about having enough beds and staff to care for patients.
On Monday, the board debated whether to keep the mask mandate at least until Jan. 18 but ultimately voted 4-3 to continue as planned with masks becoming optional for older students when they return Wednesday. If a school building reports 3% or more of its population is required to quarantine or isolate, the building would return to a mask mandate for at least two weeks.
Shawnee Mission Superintendent Michelle Hubbard, who also was on Tuesday’s call, said that everyone is feeling COVID-19 fatigue, and that was present at the meeting as tensions grew. She said the district began the school year with 250 vacancies, mostly among food service and transportation workers, and substitute teachers.
Shawnee Mission, she said, is working to retain staff amid ongoing shortages, and has offered incentive pay for subs and a retention bonus, and is considering increasing pay for paraprofessionals next year.
“It’ll be all hands on deck for the next month,” Hubbard said. “There are times when people in the district office have to roll into schools and roll up their sleeves and support our teachers, so that they can support kids in the classroom.”
Last school year, in the face of such outbreaks and staffing shortages, school districts pivoted to online-only classes while buildings were temporarily closed. This year, it’s more complicated as new state restrictions on remote learning have left districts in both Kansas and Missouri with limited options on educating students stuck home in quarantine. Breaking the rules could mean risking state funding.
Health officials have agreed that masks, as part of a layered approach to mitigation, are effective in helping students remain in school full time.
Now all Johnson County districts have made masks optional for older students. Districts continue to abide by the Johnson County health order mandating masks in schools that serve students as old as sixth grade. But under growing pressure, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners will consider whether to maintain or end that mandate at its meeting on Thursday.
Last month, 26 Kansas state legislators, local elected officials and newly elected school board members signed a letter urging county officials to drop the mandate, citing student mental health and academic issues.
Meanwhile more than 200 area doctors signed an open letter to the county board and school districts, pleading with officials to maintain mask mandates for students until the surge in cases subsides. “Now is not the time to keep our guard down,” the letter states.
“Johnson County schools are already facing staffing and substitute teacher shortages,” the doctors wrote. “Who will teach our children and run our schools when this highly transmissible variant wipes out our staff?”
Elsewhere in the Kansas City metro, other school districts are returning from winter break this week with more relaxed mitigation protocols. The Lee’s Summit, Liberty and Park Hill districts, for example, have all now dropped their mask mandates.
Many districts also are planning to follow new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, saying those who are infected or exposed but are asymptomatic need to isolate or quarantine for five days. The previous recommendation was 10 days.
Many district officials hope that a shorter time in quarantine will help ease staffing challenges.
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 12:30 PM.
