‘You just can’t social distance in a classroom.’ KY superintendents in doubt about fall.

Some Kentucky school superintendents are wary about reopening school buildings in the fall, skeptical that they can meet social distancing requirements to curb the spread of COVID-19:

“Unless the social distancing rules change, we’re not able to have school,” said Scott County Superintendent Kevin Hub. “You just can’t social distance in a classroom.”

“I don’t want to say that it’s not possible,” said Woodford County Superintendent Scott Hawkins, referring to transportation and scheduling. “But I’m struggling to see how you can make it work.”

Kentucky schools haven’t held in-person classes since March. Jeff Saylor, Estill County Superintendent, said he thinks that social distancing guidelines and other guidelines will make it difficult return to in-person classes in the fall.

The biggest issue, he said, is transporting kids. Superintendents are skeptical about federal guidelines that say students should be seated in every other seat when on a school bus.

“If we can’t transport kids, we can’t have school,” Saylor said

Superintendents say they want to reopen in the fall, but “schools as we have traditionally organized them are not built to easily manage social distancing,” said Matt Thompson, Superintendent of Montgomery County Schools.

Jim Flynn, executive director of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, said implementing non-traditional instruction (at home learning) feeding students and dealing with personnel issues related to the pandemic crisis have been stressful.

“But.. the reopening challenge is a whole other level of challenge for our superintendents and their teams, and the boards of education,” said Flynn, a former Simpson County superintendent.

Steven Stack, commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, told superintendents in a webcast on May 25 that he didn’t have good answers for them since a vaccine will not be available until at least 2021 and for now there is no treatment.

“The challenge we all face is substantial,” he said. “I don’t say these things to undermine our confidence that we will find ways to overcome them but ... to be sobering,” Stack said.

Stack says that schools will have to rely on social distancing with kids six to 10 feet apart so they don’t spread infection.

Hawkins said he wonders how attendance will be counted if alternative schedules are used. He is concerned about students being out of the classroom for five months.

He said he doesn’t think the current federal funding will be enough.

“Everytime you answer one question five more pop up,” Hawkins said.

Woodford County is surveying parents to see how many would send their children back to in-person classes, what kind of alternative schedule they would prefer and whether they will need transportation. How many staff members will come back is also a question, given that some might be at risk health-wise.

Hub said more than half of the students in Scott County ride school buses. If the numbers of students on a bus drop from from 60 to 8, it would be another barrier, he said.

However, Hub said if the business openings continue along with the plateauing of coronavirus cases, he is optimistic that he will have more concrete data in July and can let parents know when the district will return to school.

“We are going to meet whatever challenges are in front of us,” he said.

Saylor said he can increase sanitation in buildings, but there are obstacles in taking temperatures of students who enter school buildings and buses. He said that could mean hiring more staff.

Saylor said Estill County officials are making plans to move forward. But he is also concerned that some of the guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as wearing masks and opening doors and windows, conflict with the school safety regulations aimed at preventing violence.

Superintendents are also questioning how high quality teaching and learning will work if students are grouped differently or if a classroom that would have been filled with students is thinned out. Some superintendents are considering alternating groups of students in buildings every other day or every other week.

“You think about buses, you think about lunchrooms, recess for elementary, restrooms, class changes,” said Thompson, the Montgomery superintendent.

Flynn said among his membership, most superintendents don’t have the money to buy a bunch of new buses.

Rhonda Caldwell, executive director of the Kentucky Association of School Administrators, told the Herald-Leader Thursday that if half of a school’s students are learning from home, as has been suggested for fall, the question is how is it being managed, Caldwell said.

“It is impossible for the teacher to be in two places at once,” she said.

Thompson said officials in his district are trying to figure out combinations of in-class and distance learning.

Caldwell said she and some superintendents and principals are working on a roadmap to return to schools.

Caldwell said she thinks school buildings will ultimately open in the fall.

“The question is when. We won’t know that until we fully understand where we are with the guidelines from Dr. Stack, from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and what COVID-19 is doing,” Caldwell said.

Information given to school officials is constantly changing.

The state Department of Public Health is currently recommending that when districts begin implementing a reopening plan, they consider grouping students. Students could stay together in homeroom and then teachers move from class to class to reduce the number of contacts within the building.

“If we’ve got a group of students who stay together, then if one of them gets sick we’re only having to look at caring for a smaller group as opposed to if one kid gets sick and they’ve been intermingling with 250 kids in the high school,” the Department of Health’s Deputy Commissioner Connie White said during the webcast.

Stack said the challenges may mean that “there are more kids together than we would prefer because of the counterbalancing trade-off of having them fall further behind in education.”

Superintendents said they were hesitant to put students in homeroom and have teachers rotate because of scheduling conflicts with students.

Saylor said it’s going to be difficult for staff and students to wear masks. Stack said the same thing.

“It’s tough to imagine going six or seven hours in a school day wearing mask all day long, but it’s the only way to minimize the spread of infection,” said Stack.

“If you put them all too close together, they end up spreading infection and even if we tell all of the children to wear masks, we see how successful we are with adults, unfortunately,” he said.

Stack said students who may not be able to wear masks, including special needs students with sensory issues, should not be asked to do so. Teachers working with those students are urged to continue wearing a mask when working with that child.

Stack said that coronavirus tests only provide “a snapshot” of whether someone has COVID-19 at a given time, but that a testing requirement for students and staff would be reasonable.

State health officials are going to talk to superintendents again on Tuesday.

Interim Education Commissioner Kevin C. Brown recommended that districts include plans for non-traditional instruction, meaning learning from home, as well as plans for a traditional in-person classroom setting.

In a message to families May 27, after the last day of school ended, Fayette Superintendent Manny Caulk said the school district faced many unknowns for the 2020-2021 school year, with the focus on “re-envisioning, re-imagining and renewing.”

He said a task force of students, families, and staff were drafting re-entry plans for three possible scenarios: a traditional start, a distance learning start and a blended learning, incremental phase-in start. A calendar team is also developing three options: an early start in late July, a normal start on August 12, and a delayed start after Labor Day.

“As always, we will provide timely and transparent information about our plans as they begin to take shape,” Caulk said in his letter.