‘Safest option.’ Central Kentucky school district to reopen with online instruction

A Central Kentucky school board voted Monday night to reopen Aug. 26 with “100 percent virtual instruction” as all districts in the state did in March following the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.

Franklin County Public School Superintendent Mark Kopp provided to the Herald-Leader details of the phased plan that school officials will re-evaluate in October or sooner in hopes of transitioning to in-person learning.

According to the written plan, students would attend school virtually on a normal daily schedule. Instruction will be delivered from the teaching staff “with the intention of it looking as much like in-person instruction as possible,” the plan said.

“It was simply the safest option that we could choose at this time. There are no perfect solutions,” Kopp said Tuesday, noting the spike in cases statewide. He said officials in the 6,300-student district ran into obstacles as they considered in-person scenarios but want in-person learning as soon as it’s safe.

As COVID-19 cases surge in Kentucky, officials at Jefferson County Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, are expected to decide this week whether 98,000 students will begin the school year with remote learning from home as the superintendent is recommending, the Courier-Journal reported.

The superintendent of at least one other Kentucky district, Bellevue Independent Superintendent Robb Smith, announced last week that his northern Kentucky district will begin the school year with only virtual learning.

Some school districts in the state, however, have announced that they will still try to reopen safely to in-person learning in late August or early September.

Fayette Superintendent Manny Caulk and Fayette School Board Chairwoman Stephanie Spires have said the staff of that district in Lexington will present a proposed reopening plan to the board at 2:30 pm Thursday.

In Franklin County, a single online platform — Google Classroom — will be used by all teaching staff. Instruction will be livestreamed and recorded as much as possible.

Grades under the Franklin plan will be earned based on achievement, not just attendance or participation. The instructional platform that teachers will be using will integrate grades into the Infinite Campus online system, which allows parents access to grades and assignments.

Students will be provided with a Chromebook to use at home. The school district will be using federal CARES Act funding to provide greater accessibility to instruction for teachers and students with digital books, programming, and technology tools.

For students with internet accessibility issues, the district is working to provide mobile hot spots and flash drives for locations where internet coverage is limited.

If sports are permitted to continue by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association, students will be able to participate.

The district plans to provide limited in-person childcare, mental health services, and specialized services, including special education, reading programs, speech therapy and gifted and talented opportunities.

With the help of the transportation department and other employees, food and nutrition staff will still be providing meals to students across the district.

District officials will continue to monitor the pandemic to determine when they can safely transition to in-person classes, Kopp said.

That could be a hybrid model of in-person learning two days per week and three days of virtual learning or in-person learning five days per week, depending on the number of coronavirus cases and logistics, according to the plan.

Virtual options may still be available to students after the transition to in-person learning, Franklin County’s plan said.

This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 8:25 AM.