Kansas Board of Education rejects Kelly order delaying schools opening to stem virus

Kansas’ top education leaders on Wednesday rejected an order by Gov. Laura Kelly delaying the start of school until after Labor Day to buy time to bring the spread of the coronavirus under control.

The Kansas State Board of Education deadlocked 5-5 on an executive order that would have prohibited classes from resuming until Sept. 9. The tie means the vote failed, but schools will still have to follow a separate Kelly directive requiring safety measures, including masks and temperature checks.

Board members who voted no voiced support for local control and expressed confidence that school districts could best make decisions on reopening.

“It’s very confusing to parents to have their local district making a decision that is trumped by the governor’s executive order,” said board member Deena Horst, whose district includes northern Kansas.

The decision leaves districts the power to reopen as they see fit, including as normal in August. Local school boards are likely to respond in a variety of ways, creating a patchwork of start dates across the state.

The vote also marks a defeat for Kelly, who pleaded with board members to support the order to give districts more time to take precautions against spreading the virus. The vote was called under a new state law that requires the governor to seek the panel’s permission before closing schools.

Board members Janet Waugh, Ann Mah, Kathy Busch, Jim Porter and Jim McNiece supported the order. Board members Steve Roberts (who is also a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate), Michelle Dombrosky, Ben Jones, Jean Clifford and Horst voted no.

After Kansas brought new cases under control in May, the virus spread widely this summer as cities and counties relaxed restrictions on gatherings and social distancing. The state reported 771 cases since Monday alone. More than 300 people have died since the pandemic began.

In the wake of the board’s vote, Kelly asked districts to choose on their own to delay the school year.

“The cases of COVID-19 in Kansas are at an all-time high and continue to rise. Our decisions must be informed by public health experts not politics,” Kelly said in a statement. “This vote puts our students, faculty, their families and our economy at risk.”

Before the vote, Lee Norman, the state’s top health officer, urged board members to support the order. He shared a chart showing the explosive growth in cases over the past several weeks.

“Schools are not safe islands in an unsafe community,” Norman said during the meeting, which was held on Zoom.

The late start would have given districts additional time to implement safety protocols that Kelly set out in a separate order released Monday. The logistical challenges could be considerable.

Everyone must sanitize their hands at least once an hour and have their temperature taken when they arrive each day. Everyone — even elementary-age children — must wear a mask. Those requirements aren’t affected by the board’s vote.

The vote was one of the board of education’s highest-profile actions in years. The panel is comprised of eight Republicans and two Democrats, elected from districts across the state. Members received thousands of comments ahead of the meeting.

“Open schools on time. It is totally ridiculous to have any restrictions because of COVID-19,” Terry Collins of Paola wrote to board members.

“Giving the extra time not only allows more time to plan and get PPE, but also allows time for the spread to slow,” Jenessa Gonzalez, an athletics director secretary at Olathe schools, wrote.

Kelly’s failed order adds to her mixed record in guiding the state’s public health response in July. At the start of the month, she issued a statewide mask mandate. Most counties opted out, but several of the largest counties adhered and a majority of the state’s population is now required to wear a mask in public spaces.

When Kelly announced the order last week, she said she could not “in good conscience” open schools while Kansas had numerous virus hot spots. But board members on Wednesday expressed concerns that the order would take away local control — a strong value within public education.

“Districts can determine their start date as they see fit at this time. Those districts who do not feel they are ready to open can and should delay or consider delaying their opening,” Clifford, who represents western Kansas, said.

Some districts are already taking Clifford’s advice. On Tuesday, the Kansas City, Kansas, school board voted to follow Kelly’s order and will delay in-person classes for the first nine weeks of the school year. Students will instead return to school virtually, officials said.

Wichita school board member Ben Blankley said despite the state‎ board’s vote, he’ll still support pushing back the start of the school year in the state’s largest school district.

While the state board vote was a tie, he said the members who represent south-central Kansas mostly voted for the governor’s order.

“That’s a pretty good sign they thought we should uphold it at least here,” he said.

His fellow Wichita board member, Ron Rosales, said the vote was largely an urban-rural split.

“They voted as far as the area they represented,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but everybody has their decisions to make.”

The local board has called a special meeting for noon Thursday to decide how to proceed.

Rosales said the consensus on the board almost certainly favors a delay, although maybe not as long as the Sept. 9 start the governor sought. “I’m going to say it’s not going to be the 14th (of August),” he said.

He said it will take longer than that for Wichita — which has more than 50,000 students — to stock the supplies of hand sanitizer, masks and other items that will be required for a safe start.

In addition, he said, the district has a large number of new teachers coming in who will have to be trained in disease-control techniques they wouldn’t have learned in college.

The Star’s Sarah Ritter contributed reporting

This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Kansas Board of Education rejects Kelly order delaying schools opening to stem virus."